Parent reviews for Newsela

Error ridden, biased, articles my 4th grade daughter brought home caused me to question this source. I examined quite a bit of their content as well as the company website, especially the list of partners and content providers. There is a fairly severe progressive agenda at work here and I don't trust it. We want our children to lean how to think, not what to think.

My twin girls who are both eight and are in 3rd grade. We have been reviewing their reading assignments from an organization known as NEWSELA. I have highlighted all the Progressive Indoctrination points in the articles. They are trying to feed our kids an article from the Washington Post about how they must stop Global Warming from destroying humanity. It states we 'must' act and 'if' we don't the world will end and of course it's all Trump's fault that he doesn't want to protect the environment. In addition, they are making our kids answer questions about "special" kids that made a difference in 2018. I kid you not, they have hit every Progressive point that our kids must answer: kids filing lawsuits to stop global warming, a "safe space" for bullied kids, kids changing gun laws, kids walking out of class to protest gun violence and "laws", plastic straws (enough said), removing Confederate statues, white supremacists, and racism. No facts to backup the left bias or any balance of a different opinion!

I am pleased to do any assignment from my school but I am worried if other children are able to decipher the facts from the false. It is very left-biased. I do not suggest this site as a primary learning source and as your child reads the articles make sure they are able to decipher the information and research the sources to ensure the information is factual.

First, as a former teacher, I've worked with this type of presentation before--it really sounds great in theory -- kids have access to all kinds of interesting content, at their particular reading level, and quizzes are created by Newsela, again at an appropriate (often called "differentiated" level). Teachers can choose from a variety of interesting topics seemingly from reliable sources. The concept is truly awesome. However, the reality is a bit different. When switching between lexile levels for a variety of articles, I really found a difference in the quality of the presentation. Sometimes, just to change the lexile level, all Newsela did was remove a sentence or two, which awkwardly left out necessary explanation (they didn't rewrite it in a simpler way, as they could have done). More importantly, though, was that the quality of the quiz questions was quite low...my impression on average was that about 3 out of 4 questions were decent enough, but not great, while often 1 question was just plain weak. If you're ok with all of that (and I can see why a teacher might be, because it reduces their workload, and teachers are often overworked and underpaid), there's the additional HUGE issue of the bias that's inherent in these articles. Newsela takes much of its current event content from left-leaning media outlets. This could really be ok, IF they presented both sides of an issue. They do not. Kids are led to believe that the Newsela article is the ONLY way to view a controversial topic. Let's not underestimate our kids--they would grow more as learners and as citizens if they analyzed both sides of a topic. Why not present both? I'm appalled that Newsela is actually getting away with this with young and impressionable kids. Parents, please read the articles and weigh in with your kids. Discuss what they're reading at school.

Wanted some info for a school project only to see a bunch of articles on politics, On a website for KIDS. Now, I'm not angry because its left-leaning, I'd get angry if it was Right-leaning too but this is just indoctrination of kids. Articles supporting morbid obesity and saying that racism is only possible by white people. They also are one-sided on arguments of Sexism and abuse, Making it seem like women are the only ones that are abused in relationships which is pure wrong.

This app is total garbage. The content mostly consists of social justice progressive agenda and the articles have subliminal bias. There is more opinion than fact that reminds me of reading a page out of a Soviet playbook. The propaganda involved is very heavy, especially in articles talking about social justice and politics. There are no other points of view, and it seems to me that they are trying to do opinion cleansing. I would recommend for this not to be read by impressionable children, otherwise they will be confused by fact and fiction. This trashy app preys upon the most vulnerable in our society that can easily be influenced and told what to think.

This is left indoctrination at its finest. The opinion pieces are extremely bias and omit facts to try and steer the thinking of whoever is reading it. I would not recommend it to kids based on this fact alone.

Look, I don't want to be a hater with respect to a website that is put together to allow my daughters to practice reading comprehension while learning about current events. In theory, this sounds great. But, the political slant is out of control. Further, and this is what really bothers me, the questions are horrible. The answers in many cases do not make sense. I am working to get this garbage removed from my kid's school.

I have taught kindergarten 14 years, 4th grade 2 years and 7th grade 1 year. I substitute teach. Teacher and Parents please wake-up. Why would you let
biassed publication be in schools. Every liberal teacher will assign this. Look how they talk about Trump, picture him and write false views about him. Is he perfect no. They have never been honorable to presidents if they are repbulicans - until the are out of office and decided to join the democrats like Bush did with Obama. I just can't stand this publication.
Don't order it if you have a conservative bone in your body.