In 2012, the N.C. Scholastic Media Advisers Association compiled a guide for teachers and administrators interested in offering an honors journalism course at their school.

The guide, available on the NCSMA homepage, includes an Honors Newspaper Pacing Guide and a teacher preparation portfolio, which has potential course descriptions and course listings.

As a part of a 1997 Honors Journalism Proposal for Forsyth County Schools, Kay Windsor wrote about the rationale for the honors courses:

“Although journalism courses offered in grades 9-12 are part of the language arts curriculum, the courses are interdisciplinary; they offer students a chance to understand freedom of communication as a necessity in a free society, to use mass media to understand current history, humanities, science, technology and other significant aspects of contemporary life, to gather, verify, interpret and evaluate relevant news, to use various learning styles to achieve a tangible and saleable product, to explore a vocation and to strengthen skills in independent and group work. Instruction in reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and thinking are consistent with the communication skills outlined in the North Carolina standard course of study.”