Washington’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction made history when it recently announced the first group of recipients for our state’s new media literacy grant program. This is the first grant program focused on media literacy offered anywhere in the nation!
Funds were awarded through a competitive process to 12 school-based teams.
Grant Awardees for 2019-20:
- Ballard High School (Seattle SD)
- Bryant Elementary School (Seattle SD)
- Castle Rock SD
- Central Valley High School
- Columbia River High School (Vancouver SD)
- La Conner SD
- North Central ESD 171
- Port Townsend SD
- Selah SD
- Soos Creek Elementary School (Kent SD)
- Tacoma SD
- Whatcom Intergenerational High School
Teams could apply for curriculum grants of up to $25,000 or planning grants of up to $5000. The five teams receiving curriculum grants were Ballard, Central Valley High School, North Central ESD 171, Soos Creek Elementary, Kent SD and LaConner SD in collaboration with high schools in Burlington, Mt. Vernon, and Anacortes. The remaining six teams received planning grants.
All grant recipients will focus on developing media literacy-based curriculum units that can be integrated into social studies, English language arts or health classes. All units will be shared on the OER Commons Washington Hub so that they can be easily accessed by teachers across the state.
The new media literacy grant program was established with a $300,000 allocation from the 2019 Legislature. $150,000 was available for this grant round. The next grant cycle will be announced in Spring, 2020 when another $150,000 in funding will be available for distribution.
Action for Media Education (AME) continues to promote and advocate for media literacy education. Please follow us on Facebook. We encourage you to stay tuned to AME for more media literacy-related happenings in our state in 2020!