About the fellowship
The next generation of students is at a significant disadvantage because they are vulnerable to misinformation, cynical about standards-based news providers and not prepared to discern fact from fiction. Students urgently need to learn to identify credible information, cite reliable evidence and recognize falsehoods. With your help, we can move toward meeting these critical needs. The News Literacy Project District Fellowship, a three-year commitment, invites proposals from educator-leaders who wish to partner with NLP to design and execute innovative and sustainable initiatives to embed guaranteed news and media literacy education into their districts.
The NLP District Fellowship program champions news literacy instruction within the field of media literacy education at the district level, providing professional learning, curriculum and community to help fellows meet the requirements of participation. The effects of the program extend beyond the fellowship. While we work with fellows intensely for three years, the plan we build together culminates in a districtwide guarantee that will survive beyond the fellowship. For smaller districts, it may be possible to design a plan to reach all students that will be implemented fully within three years. For larger districts, we will work to expand the impact of your plan as widely as possible within the three years and prepare your team with a structured approach to reach all your students over a set period of time.
To support fellowship districts, NLP provides at least $10,000 each year of the program to be spent in any way the district fellows deem aligned to their plan. While it is required to follow district finance policies, record how the money is spent and share that record with NLP, fellows do not need to receive approval from NLP staff for the expenses. Beyond financial support and expert guidance from NLP, fellows learn from and alongside other district leaders from around the country. We facilitate collaboration within each cohort and across cohorts to maximize peer-led informal professional growth. Every March, fellows in active cohorts attend an in-person convening over a weekend at a retreat in the continental U.S. This gathering, a required part of the program, serves as a catalyst to collaboration.
During the first year of the three-year fellowship, fellows will work with NLP to lay the foundation and develop an action plan for embedding news literacy instruction in their district. Fellows will spend the second year piloting their implementation plans. During the third year, fellows continue to implement their plan and expand their impact in sustainable ways. As educators, NLP staff recognize the importance of differentiation. Each fellowship district’s plan is unique in its interpretation and realization of the milestones described below.
- Perform a needs assessment of faculty, staff and/or students to identify grades and disciplines best suited for implementation of a unit of news literacy instruction districtwide.
- Establish a team within your district and train educators to pilot your action plan.
- Collaborate with NLP experts, mentors and Cohort 5 colleagues from across the U.S.
- Engage with district stakeholders and establish relationships with school-site, discipline-specific and/or community partners.
- Complete any necessary legal procedures (e.g., Memorandum of Understanding or Data Privacy Agreement) and technological processes (e.g., Clever integration).
- Create an action plan to guide Year 2 of the fellowship.
- Expand professional development to a wider group of educators, deepening existing engagement with NLP’s world-class news literacy curriculum.
- Support and communicate regularly with the pilot educator cadre.
- Observe and measure the success of your district’s plan to integrate news literacy instruction, celebrating student and educator achievement along the way.
- Continue to collaborate with NLP experts and share learnings with other district fellows.
- Create an action plan to guide Year 3 of the fellowship, reaching more students and community members in meaningful ways.
- Reach or continue to build toward districtwide implementation in the grade level(s) and discipline area(s) you have decided to target for integration of news literacy instruction.
- Design systems to ensure the longevity of the district’s commitment to news literacy instruction and to withstand factors such as natural staff turnover.
- Serve as a thought leader within the District Fellowship program and at conferences.
- Continue to learn from measuring the success of your district’s plan and to celebrate student and educator achievement along the way.
Brief case studies
The program is structured to support fellows diving deep into their district’s unique news literacy needs and designing a tailored comprehensive strategy. While certain elements, such as conducting a needs assessment and completing end-of-year reports, are common for all fellows, action plans and implementation will differ by district. Here are three examples to illustrate equally successful and distinct approaches:
The librarian-led fellowship team designed a professional development curriculum that incorporated news literacy into what teachers were already doing in their classrooms. Supported by the district-level Instructional Supports Department, Checkology and other NLP resources were integrated into a variety of secondary-level courses, including Health, Biology and English Language Arts. While their first year focused on high school, over time the fellows included educators from all grade levels so that students would receive news and media literacy education multiple times throughout their years in the district.
Fellows began their time in the program by conducting a districtwide needs assessment of students and faculty. The results led the fellows to focus their news literacy curriculum on how artificial intelligence affects the ways teens and their teachers interact with information. They leveraged existing district practices, such as common planning time on Wednesdays, to empower social studies teachers in grades 6-12 to provide direct news and media literacy instruction in their classes. NLP’s stipend funded a three-week “News Literacy Week” celebration with events for all grade levels at the district’s K-12 school site. As an alumnus district, the work continues with plans to expand news literacy instruction to middle school health courses districtwide
With the passage of Assembly Bill 873 in California, educators statewide are looking to enhance news and media literacy instruction. In the state’s largest public school district, the Secondary English Language Arts coordinators who oversee middle and high school curriculum are working closely with NLP staff to create a news literacy-focused professional development course that will not only enhance teachers’ skills but lead to a permanent salary increase as well. The fellowship team plans to use the stipend to support development of materials that integrate Checkology lessons into the three different eighth grade English language arts curricula used throughout the district. In addition, LAUSD staff are partnering with NLP’s community engagement team to deliver family-facing webinars on trending topics in news literacy.
About the application
The application contains five components, the two most important of which are the questionnaire and the letter of support. The letter of support is described below and a sample is provided. The application components should be submitted via the online portal. Emailed submissions will not be considered.
Timeline
- March 2, 2026: Fellowship application opens.
- December 1, 2026: Application submission deadline.
- December 1, 2026-January 31, 2027: Review period.
- February 1, 2027: Decision letters sent.
- February 12, 2027: Agreement to participate signed and returned to NLP.
- Early March 2027: Annual Fellowship Convening for Active Fellows and Alumni. (Optional for Cohort 6.)
- Early August 2027: Introduction to fellowship program in preparation for the 2027–28 academic year.
Evaluation criteria
All applications are reviewed in full by a team of NLP staff members, which includes former classroom teachers as well as former district administrators. Some applicants may be asked to participate in a virtual interview. All materials will be assessed for the key qualities we seek in fellows of this program. These qualities include:
- Clear planning and vision around developing a permanent guarantee to news literacy education.
- Appropriate leadership participation and commitment.
- Commitment to civic engagement.
- Capacity to collaborate and provide unique perspectives.
Apply Now!
We are now accepting applications for our sixth cohort of district fellows. Deadline: Dec. 1, 2026.