Opinion Blog

Finding Common Ground

With Peter DeWitt & Michael Nelson

A former K-5 public school principal turned author, presenter, and leadership coach, Peter DeWitt provides insights and advice for education leaders. Former superintendent Michael Nelson is a frequent contributor. Read more from this blog.

Social Studies Opinion

The Need for Media Literacy and Civics Education Isn’t Just for Students

By Peter DeWitt — February 03, 2021 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Truth Decay - A Seat at the Table

On Thursday, Jan. 28, for Education Week’s A Seat at the Table, I moderated a chat with Jennifer Kavanagh and Alice Huguet from the Rand Corp. Kavanagh is the director of the Strategy, Doctrine, and Resources Program in the RAND Arroyo Center and a senior political scientist at the RAND Corp. She also leads RAND’s Countering Truth Decay initiative, a portfolio of projects exploring the diminishing reliance on facts and analysis in U.S. political and civil discourse.

Huguet is a policy researcher at RAND. She is interested in K-12 educational policies that influence the academic and life opportunities of students attending urban schools. Huguet’s research explores a variety of topics, including evidence-based decision-making; social and emotional learning; media-literacy education; alternative teacher-preparation programs; school leadership; and data- and instructional-coaching.

During the conversation, we discussed truth versus facts; the need for media literacy and civics education, not just for students but also adults; and the history of truth decay in our country from the very beginning. Click here to register and watch the show on-demand. It is well worth the hour.

If you’re an instructional coach, teacher leader, or school leader, consider signing up for DeWitt’s Educational Leadership Collective newsletter here.

Related Tags:

The opinions expressed in Finding Common Ground With Peter DeWitt & Michael Nelson are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
Belonging as a Leadership Strategy for Today’s Schools
Belonging isn’t a slogan—it’s a leadership strategy. Learn what research shows actually works to improve attendance, culture, and learning.
Content provided by Harmony Academy
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Too Many Initiatives, Not Enough Alignment: A Change Management Playbook for Leaders
Learn how leadership teams can increase alignment and evaluate every program, practice, and purchase against a clear strategic plan.
Content provided by Otus
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
Beyond Teacher Tools: Exploring AI for Student Success
Teacher AI tools only show assigned work. See how TrekAi's student-facing approach reveals authentic learning needs and drives real success.
Content provided by TrekAi

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Social Studies It’s a Complicated Time for Teachers to Celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary
At a lesson-writing workshop, teachers discussed how we should interpret founding principles today.
8 min read
Interior view of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylavnia. In the distance Independence Hall is visible. Feb. 7, 2026.
Teachers from across the country convened at National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Feb. 7, 2026, to create lessons for America's 250th anniversary this summer. In the distance Independence Hall is visible.
Matthew Ludak for Education Week
Social Studies Opinion 'There Are No Heroes Coming to Save Us': Black History Without the Hero Worship
We should teach the history of justice work through a community lens, explains Bettina L. Love.
4 min read
Illustrated silhouettes gathered before the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, a historic landmark, important to the Civil Rights Movement
Vanessa Solis/Education Week + Getty + Photo: Dennis Rosario/iStock
Social Studies Opinion How Two Educators Are Teaching History Right Now
The "fire hose" of current events provides an opportunity for classroom discussion.
9 min read
Conceptual illustration of classroom conversations and fragmented education elements coming together to form a cohesive picture of a book of classroom knowledge.
Sonia Pulido for Education Week
Social Studies Bible Tales, Election Denial Aren't in Okla.'s Proposed Social Studies Standards
The proposed new standards do not include several concepts championed by former state Superintendent Ryan Walters.
Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton, Tulsa World
1 min read
Bible In Schools Oklahoma 25288732719260
Copies of the Bible are displayed Aug. 12, 2024, at the Bixby High School library in Bixby, Okla. Proposed social studies standards under former Oklahoma state Superintendent Ryan Walters included Bible stories and called for students to identify "discrepancies" in the 2020 presidential election won by former President Joe Biden.
AP Photo/Joey Johnson