COMPASS Digital Databases

COMPASS (California Online Media Program for Access and Student Success) offers free, high-quality digital learning tools to all California K–12 public schools, districts, and libraries. These resources support classroom instruction, independent learning, and research—anytime, anywhere.

With just a device and internet connection, students and educators can access:

Informational texts, eBooks, videos, and primary sources
Interactive tools for science, history, literacy, and the arts
Curated, standards-aligned content with built-in supports like translations, audio readers, and citation tools

COMPASS gives your school access to trusted platforms like Britannica, ProQuest, TeachingBooks, Gale, and PebbleGo Science—without the cost of individual subscriptions.

These tools are vetted for student privacy and support digital literacy, critical thinking, and differentiated instruction. Whether you’re designing a research project, supporting multilingual learners, or helping students dig deeper into a STEAM topic, COMPASS has ready-to-use content for your classroom.

COMPASS Digital Resources

Encyclopaedia Britannica (PreK-12) and Britannica Escolar

Excellent sites for introductory information on any subject, for all grades and reading abilities. Thousands of resources organized into elementary, middle and high school levels in English, and primaria/secundaria for Spanish.

Go to Britannica School Go to Britannica Escolar

Capstone PebbleGo Science (PreK-2)

PebbleGo Science is packed with informational articles, ready-made activities, and literacy supports for students of all abilities. It boosts engagement and fosters independent learning in science, math, technology and engineering (STEM) concepts. Content is available in English and in Spanish (PebbleGo Ciencia).

Go To PebbleGo

Gale Science Resources (K-12)

Gale, part of Cengage Group, provides original and curated content as well as modern research tools and technology. Gale’s STEAM resources available for this project include:

Gale In Context: Environmental Studies — understand environmental issues that affect people globally through topic overviews, journals, news and multimedia content.
Gale Interactive: Science — manipulate 3D interactive models to visualize and understand biology, chemistry, earth, and space science concepts.
Gale Presents: National Geographic Kids — explore amazing adventures in science, nature, culture, archaeology and space.

Environmental Studies Science Kids

TeachingBooks for Schools and Libraries (PreK-12)

TeachingBooks features a suite of instructional resources that enrich the fiction and nonfiction books read by children and young adults. TeachingBooks for Libraries is a view of the TeachingBooks platform designed for public libraries, and prior to 2024 may have been known by the name BookConnections.

For Schools For Libraries

ProQuest (Grades 3-12)

Thousands of resources with sortable Lexile leveling, translation, read aloud and citation features. Excellent resources for small and larger research projects, including History Day and Science Fair.

CultureGrams (grades 3+) – Featuring detailed historical and cultural information on 209 countries, every U.S. state and 13 Canadian provinces and territories. Excellent resource for state and country reports as well as other geography projects!
SIRS Discoverer (grades 3+) – General reference database for searching on any subject, with full-text and multimedia content, including primary sources.
SIRS Knowledge Source/Issues Researcher (grades 6+) – General reference database including Pro/Con articles and research guides for over 300 leading issues of the day. Excellent resource for current events, expository and persuasive writing.
eLibrary (grades 6+) – General reference database similar to Discoverer, but with higher Lexile levels. Includes magazines, newspapers, books, television/radio transcripts, maps, pictures and A/V clips.
Research Companion – Learning modules for teaching the research process and information literacy skills (finding relevant information, source evaluation, avoiding plagiarism, etc.)