More than a year after a law was signed that mandates media literacy education for all students in grades K-12 in New Jersey, no curriculum has been formed. The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit, has several educators teaching media literacy classes around the state — teaching their students how to determine real versus fake media content and how to identify misinformation and disinformation.
“My hope and dreams for the students when they walk out of the classroom is to feel empowered to analyze information if there is need be, and be more informed consumers of cyberspace,” said Aish Sami, critical media literacy teacher at Princeton Montessori School.
“The bill passed for information literacy standards to be developed, but they haven’t started yet. I’m one of the volunteers who has stepped up to try to write the standards, and we’ve been waiting since January 2023 to get started. The state of New Jersey needs to get this going in a more timely fashion,” said Kim Zito, school library media specialist with the South Brunswick Township School District.
