In today’s digital world, we seem to be surrounded by news. Clickbait, anyone? Yet the pervasive and often intrusive nature of internet news articles belies the fact that many of these sites are behind a paywall, biased, or feature low-quality reporting.
Still, online articles are a great starting point for all kinds of learning assignments across the curriculum. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best (mostly) free article websites for students. Many of these sites offer not only high-quality topical articles on every subject, but also ideas for lessons, such as questions, quizzes, and discussion prompts.
Free Article Sites
CBS Kids News
A top quality, free service of the Canada Media Fund, CBS Kids provides daily news stories of interest to kids in Canada and the United States. Although the focus is on Canada, the vast majority of articles are highly relevant to American kids as well. Examples include: “What’s an executive order? And why do U.S. presidents use them?” “TikTok creators confessed secrets before the app went dark,” and “Nintendo Switch 2 is coming in 2025.” Even better, the articles are written by students, grades 7-12. Topics are diverse and range from sports, gaming, and animals to politics and interactive quizzes. Stories are printable as PDF and shareable to Google Classroom. An excellent resource for teachers.
The Electric Typewriter
A remarkable free site that compiles and links to the best articles on a wide range of topics, from current affairs to music to sports and more. Ideal for students in grade 11 through post-secondary school.
The Sift
The Sift is a free weekly newsletter for educators that provides summaries, discussion points, ideas for lessons, and links to topical articles in the news. Each newsletter also highlights and debunks fake news making the social media rounds. Classroom-ready resources include shareable Google Slide decks.
Science Journal for Kids and Teens
A fantastic free source for hundreds of downloadable scientific articles aimed at K-12 students. Search by standards, grade level, scientific topic, or method. Each article is accompanied by a teacher’s guide, lesson plan ideas, and related articles. Teachers need only to register once to access all educator guides. Be sure to check out their YouTube page as well!
PBS NewsHour Daily News Lessons
Daily articles covering current events in video format. Each lesson includes a full transcript, fact list, summary, and focus questions.
NYT Daily Lessons/Article of the Day
The New York Times Daily Lessons builds a classroom lesson around a new article each day, offering thoughtful questions for writing and discussion, as well as related ideas for further study. Perfect for practicing critical thinking and literacy skills for middle and high school students, it’s a part of the larger NYT Learning Network, which provides an abundance of activities for students and resources for teachers.
The Learning Network
Current event articles, student opinion essays, movie reviews, students review contests, and more. The educator resource section offers top-notch teaching and professional development resources.
News For Kids
With the motto “Real News, Told Simply,” News for Kids strives to present the latest topics in U.S. and world news, science, sports, and the arts in a way that’s accessible to most readers. Tooltips within each article highlight certain words to add a definition, or link to further explanation.
ReadWorks
A fully free research-based platform, Readworks provides thousands of nonfiction and fiction passages searchable by topic, activity type, grade, and Lexile level. Educator guides cover differentiation, hybrid and remote learning, and free professional development. Great resource for teachers.
Science News for Students
Winner of multiple awards for journalism, Science News for Students publishes original science, technology, and health features for readers ages 9-14. Stories are accompanied by citations, recommended readings, glossaries, readability scores, and classroom extras.
Teaching Kids News
A terrific site that publishes readable and teachable articles on news, art, science, politics, and more for students grades 2-8. Bonus: The Fake News resource section links to online games about fake news and images. A must for any digital citizen.
Youngzine
A unique news site for young people that focuses on climate science, solutions, and policies to address the myriad effects of global warming. Kids have an opportunity to express their views and literary creativity by submitting poetry or essays. Free for educators, compatible with Google Classroom.
Scholastic Kids Press
A multinational group of young journalists ages 10-14 report the latest news and fascinating stories about the natural world. Features sections dedicated to civics and international news. Have a student with a strong journalistic bent? In March 2025 Scholastic Kids Press will accept applications for the 2025-26 program year.
National Geographic Kids
A fine library of articles about animals, history, science, space, and—of course—geography. Students will enjoy the “Weird But True” short videos, featuring fun animations about oddball topics.
Freemium Article Sites
AllSides for Schools
From the public benefit company Allsides Technology, Allsides for schools aims to present unbiased news and information for kids through downloadable lesson plans covering polarization and bias, using AI for civil discourse, and comparing bias across news outlets. A free basic account allows limited access. Premium accounts cost between $4.99 and $14.99 monthly and allow 50-150 bias checker uses per month. Classroom and district memberships are also available and offer COPPA/FERPA compliant student access, starting at $200 annually for up to 99 students.
DOGOnews
News articles featuring current events, science, social studies, world events, civics, environment, sports, weird/fun news, and more. Free access to all articles. Premium accounts offer extras such as simplified and audio versions, quizzes, and critical thinking challenges.