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Weekly reading and thinking goals
Connects course lectures to current events
Detailed analytics and no teacher grading
Phnom Penh has spent two decades quietly building a case against the museums and private collectors holding Khmer artifacts looted during the civil war. Now the strategy is paying off.
The breakthrough came when a 10th-century sandstone Shiva, identified by researchers in a 1970s photograph, surfaced at auction in New York and was returned within months.
Officials at the National Museum estimate that hundreds of pieces remain in foreign collections. A government task force formed in 2022 has identified 87 priority artifacts using photographs taken during the Khmer Rouge era.
"The provenance gaps are usually visible to anyone willing to look," said Bradley Gordon, a lawyer who advises Cambodia on restitution cases.
Most students have never read a full news article that’s
reported, edited, and sourced.
They go on to careers, civic life, and the voting booth without learning to find and critically read serious journalism.
The News Challenge starts a new story.
Makes reading and critical thinking a healthy habit.
First, a healthy reading diet. Then, critical thinking.
"A student came up to me after class and brought up an article that had barely come up 20 minutes ago. We had this really intelligent conversation about world economics... he wasn't just going in and gaming the system to get the points, he was actually becoming a more educated student."
"AverPoint has benefited Eton's students by encouraging them to think critically about what they read. It is especially good for encouraging inferential reading."
"News articles help students connect class concepts to real-world events, understand fast-changing markets and technologies, and learn to make informed decisions like business leaders."
"I started reading a newspaper from my country called El País that fueled my interest in neuroscience via a research paper on ALS, which I later presented to my school science club."
"AverPoint gave me the direct practical experience of using media literacy and being analytical. It helped use the concepts learned from lecture and the readings and apply them to real life situations."
"It made high-quality economics and financial news a daily habit. It builds consistency and makes Economics feel more real. You see theories you learn in classrooms playing out in real time."
Two case studies from this fall.
Fall 2025. 532 first-year business students. Students had to maintain Level 6 for three weeks, reading three FT articles per week.
We saw a significant improvement over the prior year in students' retention and depth of understanding related to the news. This was most apparent in class discussions, where students would ask about the implications of main headlines on our business topics.Professor Tim Webb, University of Michigan Ross School of Business
Pat Hollihan teaches AP Econ, American Government, Social Problems, and AP Psychology. He started with a free pilot in Fall 2025. By Fall 2026, AverPoint will reach 75 students across multiple courses.
Technical approvals
6-week pilot
Weekly 30–60 min assignments
In-class discussion every Friday
More integration with syllabus
Explain the “why” of news literacy
“AverPoint reaches each student where they are, academically and motivationally, and provides quick feedback so they can see their progress.”Pat Hollihan, Social Studies teacher, Big Foot Union High School
| Where a student starts | Where they go | |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness of major sources and topics, Reads 2 to 3 articles a week | → | Reads about five articles a week across several major newspapers |
| Reads all the major papers for first time, Reads full articles, Questions claims in their familiar source | → | Reads deeply across multiple sources, and questions even their usual paper |
| Already reads their favorite paper everyday | → | Reads 3 national and 1 local paper, questions claims, writes with evidence |
Enhance your News Challenge with custom
reading, research, and writing assignments.
One-click footnotes from class readings and articles in the wild.
Built-in AI cheat detection shows whether each citation was actually read.
Students save links, quotes, and images from real websites into Collections.
AI-generated, configurable to your course.
Flashcards and quizzes tied to what students are reading.
FERPA and COPPA compliant. Each student gets an individual reading profile showing progress over time. Standards-aligned to ELA, social studies, and AP frameworks.
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