DENVER -- A bill designed to help Colorado students learn how to critically evaluate what they see and hear in today's digital media landscape has cleared the Colorado General Assembly.

House Bill 1103 will create an online media-literacy resource bank, managed by the Colorado Department of Education, that schools can tap to help kids identify the difference between factual information, misinformation and opinion.

Jeff Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, said misinformation and disinformation are growing problems.

"People really do need the skills to look at TV commentaries, the social media posts, and know how to decide whether what they're seeing has some truth to it or not," Roberts contended.

House Bill 1103 will implement recommendations from a Media Literacy Advisory Committee report, which concluded students need tools to navigate a media environment where anyone can produce, publish, and share information globally.

Opponents objected to the creation of a state-sanctioned information hub, calling it governmental intrusion on free speech. The bill as amended allows public input on materials that should be added or removed from the bank.

The measure also leaves it up to school districts and charter schools to decide whether to incorporate materials from the resource bank into their curriculums.

Roberts agreed most people would object if the materials were partisan or designed to indoctrinate students in any way.

"But you're talking about teaching critical thinking," Roberts observed. "And if it doesn't turn out to be the case, this all should be reviewed. And I'm sure that parents will be paying close attention."

The Media Literacy Advisory Committee's report includes links to lesson plans, videos and activities for elementary, middle and high school teachers.

Legislation passed in 2019 called for the creation of the committee within the Colorado Department of Education. Members appointed by the state education commissioner included media literacy experts, teachers from rural and urban districts, professional journalists, parents, students and a librarian.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - State Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, is lashing out against the idea of Critical Race Theory, filing a bill to ban its use in all government institutions, including universities.

Critical Race Theory is described as an upper-level academic framework that examines whether and how systems and policies perpetuate racism. The topic has become a lightning rod for conservatives across the country, who claim it's being taught in grade schools.

Fine, who is white, has said the topic is inherently racist. However, state Rep. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, who is Black, said that in grade school, she was taught European history.

"Not any focus at all on the free labor that our people gave that made the American economy a superpower that it became," she said. "And is it racist, then, that I only got European history? I think so."

Gov. Ron DeSantis already had issued a ban on discussing Critical Race Theory in public schools in June, in the racial unrest following the killing of George Floyd. Thompson said she believes African American history - which is separate from Critical Race Theory - should be taught because it's part of American history.

Thompson has filed bills advocating teaching African American history in schools. She noted that since 1994, Florida law has required African American history be taught in all 67 counties. However, she said, research by the Florida Department of Education's African American History Task Force has shown the law is being ignored.

"They have found that only 11 of the 67 counties are actually providing acceptable instruction in African American history," she said.

Thompson said what she considers "acceptable" is instruction beyond Black History Month. Fine's bill includes a 10-point list of what it calls "divisive concepts" to be banned. They include topics around sexism and "race or sex scapegoating." The proposal also bans teaching that one race or sex is inherently superior to another, that the United States is fundamentally racist or sexist, or that individuals are inherently racist, sexist or oppressive based on their own race or gender.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A new survey of community colleges and technical schools in the United States shows their courses and programs that promote job skills are gaining in popularity.

The survey found 35% of students are taking non-credit courses that lead to industry certifications and credentials, instead of strictly academic courses designed to transfer to a four-year school.

"Community colleges educate more people than coding boot camps, apprenticeship programs and government job training combined," said Tamar Jacoby, president of the nonprofit Opportunity America, which did the survey.

According to the survey, of the nation's 10.5 million community-college students, 3.7 million adults are enrolled in non-credit programs, and about three-quarters are older than 25.

Many students in non-credit programs later decide to pursue four-year degrees, but the survey found only 20% of community colleges allow students to leverage their non-credit learning for college credit, either "most" or "all" of the time. Texas' Commissioner of Higher Education Harrison Keller said that needs to change.

"Let's make those credentials more readily convertible to the credit side," he said, "so these short-term credentials can be 'stackable,' on the way to other kinds of degrees and credentials."

Of the colleges surveyed, many said cost is the biggest barrier for adults going back to school. Anne Kress, president of Northern Virginia Community College, said her state has a program known as "Fast Forward," which subsidizes two-thirds of the cost for students in certain non-credit courses. She said she thinks it could serve as a national model.

"Fast Forward is a way for the state to incentivize community colleges to offer these in-demand, non-credit pathways that lead to industry-recognized credentials," she said.

The survey also looked at the partnerships community colleges form with local employers - and found only about 36% of employer partners offer workplace-based learning opportunities.

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Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - As the pandemic continues to pose challenges for college students across the state, research by the Lumina Foundation shows that a set of more engaged and active teaching and learning approaches - called high-impact practices - implemented at 13 Tennessee community colleges benefit students, especially adults and students of color.

Heidi Leming is Vice Chancellor for Student Success at the Tennessee Board of Regents. She said the extra supports help ensure students stay on their degree track.

"Students who participate in high-impact practices not only are earning higher GPAs," said Leming, "but they're persisting at higher rates because they're again more engaged with faculty and the institutions and their learning."

Leming said Columbia University's Community College Research Center found Tennessee's community colleges are the furthest along in implementing these reforms of any community college system in the nation.

Leming said one of the most common high-impact practices colleges have relied on are first-year seminars.

"And many of our institutions require students to take this course, which teaches them effective learning strategies," said Leming. "How the college operates, resources that can assist them - whether it's tutoring or counseling - other wrap around supports."

She added that in addition to high-impact practices, colleges have increased coaching and developed guided pathways to help students navigate coursework toward degrees based on their academic or career interests.

"And making the connection of what's being taught to real-life experiences, they see the purpose of being there," said Leming. "So that motivates them to keep moving forward to the next course that they need to take to complete."

More Tennessee students enroll in community colleges than any other public and private college and university sector in the state.

In fall of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, 54% of Tennessee public high-school graduates heading to a public higher-education institution enrolled in a community or technical college.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.