Lawmaker explores news literacy education for Nevada students

CARSON CITY – Nevada lawmakers are exploring ways to incorporate news literacy into education standards during National News Literacy Week.

Assemblymember Cecelia Gonzalez said the effort comes at a time when credible information and misinformation are often confused – especially among youth.

“Misinformation spreads so quickly — as we’ve seen with news of ICE raids that actually aren’t happening, right?” the Las Vegas Democrat said. “Making sure that our students are critical thinkers is very important.”

Gonzalez and Assemblymember Erica Mosca, D-Las Vegas, who cosponsored the proclamation, said they plan to discuss expanding news literacy education with the Nevada Department of Education, though the specifics remain undefined. Gonzalez said their options include introducing bills next session or exploring policy change through other means.

The effort comes at the same time as lawmakers grapple with performance results for the 2023-24 school year. Thirty-nine percent of Clark County School District students are proficient in English language arts – roughly two percentage points lower than the entire state.

“In a time where misinformation rapidly spreads, this is something that is very critical to us and something that we look forward to bringing to Nevada,” Gonzalez said. “We don’t want to overburden our very burdened teachers, as a teacher myself, so we’re having conversations about how we can incorporate this.”

About 20 percent of teens were able to correctly distinguish between different types of information – such as news, advertisements, opinions and entertainment – according to a study from the nonpartisan education nonprofit News Literacy Project. And about eight in 10 teens reported seeing conspiracy theories on social media and that they were inclined to believe one or more of them.

“News literacy is the ability to discern factual information from non-credible information,” Ebonee Otoo, a senior vice president at the News Literacy Project, said. She said the goal of the advocacy week is to ensure students learn about news literacy before they graduate high school.

Last school year, the News Literacy Project provided almost 600 educators across the state with free resources, the nonprofit said. It estimates that effort reached more than 2,800 students.

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.