Teacher support for media literacy proposed in Olympia

A public school grant program to help students evaluate news reports would be established if a bill passed by the state Senate makes its way through the House of Representatives.

State senator Marko Liias (D-Mukilteo) proposed Substitute Senate Bill 5626, which would award teachers and school districts the grant amount, which is unspecified right now. Funding would be subject to the final state budget approved later in this year’s legislative session for the 2023-24 biennium. SB 5626 passed the Senate 44-4.

Jen Ligot, Washington State Council for the Social Studies board member, works with school-aged children every day on media-related issues as a teacher and the mom of a middle schooler.

“They need to know that their news does not come from their social media accounts, it comes through their social media accounts, and how to research and dig a little deeper and find out where their news actually comes from,” she said.

In 2021, legislation was passed requiring the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to begin planning a similar grant program supporting media literacy and digital citizenship.

The program would run in a two-year cycle, with OSPI establishing criteria for program participation.

During the first year, the program would be required to support a group of teachers analyze how media literacy skills fit into state learning standards. During the second year, the program would train the teachers to teach media literacy within their subject areas.

Liias said Washington was the first state to adopt a vision for media literacy and digital citizenship.

“We are now seeing, I think, the development and blooming of what that means as a strategy,” he said.

Librarians are typically at the heart of the work done for media literacy and digital citizenship, he said, but a lot of schools do not have a full-time librarian so it is valuable to have trained teachers.

“This can be valuable to embed across the curriculum,” Liias said. “Eventually, we’ll reach a place for every teacher in every classroom – to the extent that they have time and energy and desire – to integrate this.”

The Washington State Journal is a nonprofit news website funded by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation. Learn more at wastatejournal.org.