Data Analysis Table

Data Analysis Table

Table 1 shows students’ ability to evaluate digital sources on the open internet. As can be seen, the results are troubling; nearly all students floundered. Ninety per cent received no credit on four of six tasks, which means they cannot judge the credibility of information on the internet.

Six different questions were the comprehensive ability. Overall, students struggled with all the tasks. At least two-thirds of student responses were Beginning for each of the six tasks. On four of the six tasks, over 90% of students received no credit. Claims on Social Media question 1 had the lowest proportion of Mastery responses, with less than 1% of students demonstrating a solid understanding of the COR competencies measured by the task. Evaluating Evidence had the highest proportion, with 8.7% earning full credit.

The further sub-analysis based on the personal attributes of the students, as seen in Figure 1, shows that differences in the proportion of students earning Emerging/Mastery scores by locale (urban, suburban, or rural). Students in urban districts outperformed their peers in suburban and rural districts on all six tasks; students in suburban districts scored higher than rural students on four of six tasks. This difference may result from the increased focus on student media literacy in urban education, partly due to better-funded grants and better-equipped teachers.

Figure 2 shows the proportion of students scoring Emerging/ Mastery by race and ethnicity for each task. Overall, a relatively consistent pattern of scores by race and ethnicity emerged across all six tasks. Students who identified as Asian/Pacific Islander had the highest proportion of responses scored as Mastery or Emerging on all six tasks; students who identified as Black/African American had the lowest proportion of responses in these scoring categories. The proportion of Mastery and Emerging scores for Hispanic, multiracial, and White students fell between those of Asian/Pacific Islander and Black/African American students for all six tasks. This phenomenon probably reflects the differences in the value of education between races and partly reflects the inequitable distribution of education.

The data also revealed differences in scores based on whether students reported receiving free or reduced lunch at school, a rough indicator of family income. Figure 6 shows the disparity in scores between students who reported receiving free and reduced lunch and those who did not. Across all six tasks, the proportion of Emerging/ Mastery responses was lower for students who reported receiving free/reduced lunch

In conclusion, we should concern about two main things: How can students make sound decisions about how to vote or form their own opinions on important topics such as healthcare, housing and economic policy when they are unsure of the quality of their sources? Considering there are now entire cable news networks and partisan news sites built around presenting distorted interpretations of the facts, this is concerning. The second thing to worry about is the gap in media literacy skills between poor and black students relative to their peers, which is bound to widen the “civic gap” as more fake news emerges. The need for communities to be able to effectively advocate for lawmakers and policies and legislation that will improve the lives of their members.