Deadline: Mar. 31 to apply for the 2026-27 school year
Who: California public high school with 600+ students
Goal: Improve students’ critical thinking skills and media literacy, in alignment with California AB873. See Mission
Award: $60,000 per year, potentially up to 3 years.
Objective: Critical thinking is usually approached as a whole, while the fundamental component skills get little instruction, according to data. This grant is part of our research on the effectiveness of exercising these fundamental component skills, including media literacy, to support high-level critical thinking.
Eligibility: Public or charter school, grades 9-12. We are seeking a school with above-average scores on CAASPP ELA or Math to balance out the other schools already participating in this project.
Expectations:
| • | Dedicate 20% of a certified staff member’s time to serve as the Critical Thinking Coordinator (CTC) for the school for 2026-27. The CTC will: |
| • | Meet with teachers and departments throughout the year to encourage and coordinate critical thinking and media literacy lessons. Conduct training as needed. |
| • | Curate critical thinking curriculum and resources for your teachers. |
| • | Create and adapt critical thinking lessons for teachers as needed. |
| • | Teach critical thinking lessons as a guest instructor as needed. |
| • | Administer pre-tests and post-tests provided by us at the start and end of the year, and gather requested data for research. |
Your selected Critical Thinking Coordinator should be a strong critical thinker and a persuasive speaker.
Teachers may interpret and teach critical thinking skills as they see fit. Use of our learning apps is encouraged but not required. If requested, we are available to give remote staff presentations and workshops; not required.
Reporting:
| • | Occasional meetings by phone or video to discuss plans, data, challenges, and successes. |
| • | Provide general feedback to us on lessons and resources. |
| • | Provide requested data for our research (anonymized raw data). |
Research: We are measuring the collective effect of increased instruction over the long term in the real world, not the effectiveness of each specific lesson or resource in laboratory conditions. We will analyze the data, including pre-tests, post-tests, and control groups, and publish our findings.
Questions: [email protected]
