Alliance for Decision Education Receives Carnegie Grant to Expand Media Literacy Incubator

Expansion will equip thousands of students with skills to navigate today’s fast-moving, complex information environment

• Supported by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Alliance for Decision Education is scaling its Media Literacy Incubator from individual pilot schools to district-level implementation nationwide.
• The initiative empowers middle and high school students with the skills to critically evaluate media credibility, navigate the information landscape, and make informed decisions.
• Recent pilot data demonstrates a 36% improvement in students' source evaluation skills and a measurable increase in intellectual humility.
  
  

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Alliance for Decision Education, a national nonprofit leading the effort to integrate decision-making skills into K–12 education, has received a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to scale its Media Literacy Incubator, bringing media literacy and decision-making instruction to thousands of middle and high school students nationwide.

The Media Literacy Incubator is part of the Alliance’s broader Decision Education Incubator model, a field-tested approach in which schools and the Alliance co-design and pilot instructional models across subject areas and grade levels. Through the Alliance’s work funded by Carnegie, participating districts will help students build durable skills for understanding, interpreting, and evaluating information from diverse media sources with the goal of making thoughtful choices about how they engage with media and technology.

This expansion builds on existing Media Literacy Incubator partnerships with individual schools in Illinois, North Carolina, Hawaii, and Maryland. By moving from school-based pilots to district-level implementation, the Alliance aims to increase reach while maintaining a strong focus on local context, accessibility, and educator input.

Results from prior cohorts highlight the promise of this approach. Students who participated during the 2024–2025 academic year showed a 36.029% improvement in evaluating media sources, demonstrating stronger ability to assess credibility and reliability. Students also demonstrated an improvement on an intellectual humility assessment, reflecting greater openness to revising beliefs when presented with new or conflicting evidence.

“Students are growing up in an AI-infused, media-saturated world where information literacy and decision skills are essential for understanding,” said David Samuelson, Executive Director of the Alliance for Decision Education. “This first-time support from Carnegie is a meaningful milestone for our organization and will help us work alongside school districts to ensure students are learning not just how to analyze information, but how to make thoughtful, informed decisions about what they see, share, and believe.”

“Helping young people navigate today’s information environment is fundamental to a healthy democracy,” said Ambika Kapur, a program director for Education at Carnegie Corporation of New York. “Through this grant, Carnegie is glad to support district-level implementation of the Alliance’s Media Literacy Incubator, equipping students with the skills to evaluate information critically, engage with differing viewpoints, and make informed decisions.”

Over the course of the grant, the Alliance will collaborate with district partners to pilot new instructional tools, provide professional learning for hundreds of educators, measure student outcomes using validated assessments, and establish a national community of educators, researchers, and policymakers. The work will contribute to the growing evidence base for Decision Education and inform policy efforts at the state and national levels.

Learn more about the Alliance’s Decision Education Incubator, Exploring Decision-Making through Media Literacy here.

About the Alliance for Decision Education
The Alliance for Decision Education (the Alliance) is a national nonprofit and field builder with the mission of improving lives by empowering students with essential skills and dispositions for making better decisions. The Alliance partners with teachers, academic and business leaders, families, and community members to raise awareness and lead the growing call to have Decision Education taught in schools across the country.

About Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Today, the foundation works to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace.

Media Contact
Ivy McDaniels
Communications Director
ivy@alliancefordecisioneducation.org
(610) 668-1484

Carnegie Media Contact
Angely Montilla
aem@carnegie.org

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