Editorial Standards and Corrections Policy

Daily Bell Ringers is run by Clay Shumate, a certified grades 6–12 social studies teacher. This page explains how prompts are made, how facts and answers are checked, where AI is involved, and what happens when something is wrong.

The standard this site is held to

Clay is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, and this site follows the SPJ Code of Ethics as a working standard: seek the truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable. Bell ringers are not journalism, but the questions a reporter asks (who says so, how do they know, what happens if it is wrong) are the right ones to ask of classroom material.

How prompts are made

Prompts are drafted with AI assistance under rules Clay set, and they are published on a schedule, one set per grade band each school day. Clay does not approve each daily post before it goes live. The accountability comes from the rules below and from the corrections process, not from a promise that a person reads every prompt first.

• Every historical date, scientific fact, and current-events detail is checked against a published source, and the source is linked in that prompt’s teacher notes.
• Every math answer is worked out and checked before it is published.
• If a fact cannot be verified, the prompt is replaced with a different one instead of guessing.
• No invented statistics, no copyrighted text, no song lyrics or poems.

How sources are chosen

Preferred sources, in order: primary sources and government agencies (the National Archives, the Library of Congress, NASA, NOAA), university and museum resources, established reference works such as Britannica, and reputable news organizations for current events. Where evidence is contested, the notes say so. The linked page is the authority; descriptions here are written in plain language and may simplify the source’s wording.

Classroom safety and neutrality

Prompts are written to be grade-appropriate. Current-events prompts ask students to reason about what happened, never to pick a political side, and the wording is kept neutral. No student, school, or district is named anywhere on this site, and no student work or records are published.

Corrections

If a fact or answer is wrong, email shu@elevatethenorm.com with the page and the specific item. Factual and answer errors are corrected on the page as soon as they are confirmed, and a substantive correction is noted so the fix is visible. Typos and broken links are fixed without a note. A fair disagreement about interpretation is not an error, but the notes are updated when a reader makes a good case.

Dates and updates

Reference pages show a “last checked” date. That date changes only when the sources were actually rechecked or the content changed, never to make a page look fresh.

Independence

This site is independently run and free to use. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or speaking for any school, district, or employer. Recommendations of tools or materials are unpaid unless a page says otherwise. Related: Elevate the Norm’s editorial standards.