Lots of people ask the question, what is Newspapers in Education?

The idea of using newspapers in education is not a new one; in fact, recorded references go
back as far as the 1890s.

NIE as we know it began at The New York Times in the 1930s when teachers in the New
York City schools asked the newspaper to deliver bundles to schools for current events
activities.
Over the decades, the NIE concept spread among newspapers across the world. In the late
1970s, the concept even spread to prisons, adult literacy centers, and hospital-based learning
programs far beyond the traditional classroom setting.

Fairfax Medias NIE program is fostering excellence in our young people. Our program
brings an exchange of ideas to the classroom, encourages literacy and helps inquiring
students become thinkers and doers. Using newspapers in the classroom is just one way we
lay the foundation for informed, responsible citizens. The success of our program is credited
to the teachers, librarians, principals who use newspapers as a teaching tool and to the local
businesses who make it all possible. Thanks to them we're leaving our communities a legacy
of confident readers, writers, critical thinkers and leaders.

Our philosophy is simple: We believe that using the newspaper as a tool to educate our
students inspires learning and contributes to their success. Newspapers are springboards to
knowledge for everyone.

Teachers affi rm that the NIE program assists them in their everyday lesson plans and that
using the newspaper:
Promotes literacy
Encourages hands-on learning
Can enhance every academic subject
Links learners to their communities and the world
Improves test scores
Students' reading comprehension and writing skills are enhanced with regular use of the
newspaper in the classroom. It is chock full of capital letters, verbs, nouns, adjectives,
adverbs, homonyms, synonyms and more!
Students have the opportunity see examples of and determine the difference between fact
and opinion.
Imagine motivating students to learn math skills with the scores from the AFL or Rugby
or Netball by teaching mean, median and mode, probability, fractions, decimals and
percentages using the scores and statistics on the sports pages.
Connect charting and graphing to real life by using the television schedule or weather page.
These ideas and many more are available in the Newspapers in Education program.

Research shows that people who read the newspaper every day:
Are far more aware of their community and community issues
Have higher incomes
Travel extensively
Are ten times more likely to volunteer in their community