Media literacy is an urgent - and largely unmet - priority among educators in schools today. That's what over a thousand teachers and library-media specialists from across the country told Cable in the Classroom in an exclusive survey conducted in 2006.

In today's media-saturated world, students spend a large part of their lives in front of, interacting with, and even creating digital images and words. The media children consume and interact with may have the potential to greatly influence their beliefs and behaviors. Educators, therefore, want to ensure that their students use media responsibly and well.

This report looks at the state of media literacy as seen by educators from all levels - elementary, middle, and senior high - and points to some of Cable in the Classroom's timely and useful resources. These tools can help schools empower students to become thoughtful users of media for learning and for their lives.

Grunwald Associates conducted the online survey on behalf of Cable in the Classroom in March 2006 of a nationwide cross section of 1,045 U.S. full-time classroom teachers of core subject areas and library/media specialists in K-12 public schools. Inherent in any statistical inference is random error associated with the findings. For a sample size of 1,045, the random error of any percentage based on this sample size is about ± 3% at the 95% confidence level.