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"Welcome to Reading Companion! Reading Companion is IBM's web-based literacy grant initiative that uses voice recognition technology to help children and adults learn how to read. This multi-million-dollar grant program is available for free to public elementary schools (for children ages 5-7) and nonprofit organizations such as public libraries, community colleges, and agencies that offer adult literacy services. Individuals, who wish to access this software, must be affiliated with an existing Reading Companion grant site. Developed by IBM researchers working in partnership with schools and not-for-profit organizations, Reading Companion is an effective and easy-to-use technology that assists individuals as they learn to read. This innovative software 'listens' and provides feedback, enabling emerging readers to practice reading and their English pronunciation as they acquire fundamental reading skills."

"A few years ago, I realized my son, Jack, didn't exactly love books. We'd always read to him as a baby, and he was beginning to read for school. When he got home, him going to the shelf and picking up a book was about as likely as his pulling out a notebook and solving quantum physics problems. Actually, the latter was more likely. He's a smart kid. So Sue and I took it on ourselves to fix the problem if we could. Starting that summer, and every summer since, we went out and found books that I was pretty sure he'd not just read, but would love to read. That was a big part of the inspiration for READKIDDOREAD. But, more than that, the experience with Jack got me writing books that I hoped he and other kids would love to read. Before then, I'd always written books just for grown-ups. In fact, one of my proudest moments as a writer was when I passed him the manuscript of The Dangerous Days of Daniel X. Not only did he like it, he told me it was his favorite. Anyhow, the Daniel X series, the Maximum Ride series, and the Witch & Wizard series were written for just this purpose. Jack got me writing books that I thought other kids would love. To contribute a few books that hopefully, will make kids readers for life. But don't take my word for it. Read some of the feedback these books have gotten from parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians, and even critics. I hope you and your young readers enjoy them, too."

"Young people are encouraged to explore the center's library of current and classic books, which can be read onsite. Adults can also read aloud to their children from a selection of preschool-appropriate books by the nation's best authors and illustrators. This collection of books is noncirculating, and readers are encouraged to check with their school and local public libraries for copies that they can borrow and enjoy at home to complete their reading."

"Zinio is revolutionizing reading. Through digital products and services, the Company creates better ways for people to discover published content, get more of it and do more with it. Zinio works closely with publishers worldwide to reinvent reading. For consumers, Zinio enables the ability to shop for, search inside, read, share and save digital content in new ways and on many devices. With over 50,000 digital magazines and books, and e-stores localized in 15 languages, zinio.com is the largest online newsstand in the world. Founded in 2001 and privately held, Zinio is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in New York, London, Paris, Barcelona and Taipei."

Texthelp Systems Inc. is an assistive technology software company with corporate offices in Antrim, Northern Ireland and Woburn, Massachusetts. Texthelp markets a range of award-winning software solutions to help people with reading, writing, and literacy difficulties. The company's mission is to provide high quality and innovative assistive technology for any person of any age seeking to develop their language skills through the use of a computer. Texthelp's products are designed for use by individuals, corporations or government organizations seeking to overcome accessibility difficulties. Products include: Read&Write GOLD, Read&Write GOLD for Mac, BrowseAloud, and Lexiflow. Since 1996, Texthelp has been developing and refining software products to take advantage of the latest technology innovations and to meet the ever increasing need for solutions for individuals with literacy difficulties.

"The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the use of Howard Zinn's best-selling book A People's History of the United States and other materials for teaching a people's history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. The Zinn Education Project is coordinated by two non-profit organizations, Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change. Its goal is to introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of United States history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula. The empowering potential of studying U.S. history is often lost in a textbook-driven trivial pursuit of names and dates. Zinn's A People's History of the United States emphasizes the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in shaping history. Students learn that history is made not by a few heroic individuals, but instead by people's choices and actions, thereby also learning that their own choices and actions matter. We believe that through taking a more engaging and more honest look at the past, we can help equip students with the analytical tools to make sense of - and improve - the world today. For a more complete description, read the PDF A People's History, A People's Pedagogy . In 2008, with support from an anonymous donor, the Zinn Education Project distributed 4,000 free packets for teaching people's history to educators across the country. In a follow-up survey, the recipients requested more resources, which led to the creation of this upgraded website to provide teaching materials online. Read the fullreport (in PDF) on the distribution of the 4,000 packets here."

"Dreams are fed by reading. And for those of us who find reading a challenge, it's time to dream in a new way. And feed the hunger to learn with the Intel® Reader."

"Overview: An estimated 30 million students in North America can't read or perform math functions at grade level. AutoSkill creates award-winning intervention software solutions to help close the proficiency gap in K-12 schools. For over 18 years, our research-based programs have helped at-risk students succeed by building fluency in the foundation skills of reading and math. Our mission is simple - to help every student progress in their education and work with teachers, principals and administrators to meet AYP targets and surpass their student achievement goals."

"Excerpt from the Covenant with Black America Without question, education is the key to progress and prosperity in the United States today. Whether fair or not, educational opportunity and academic achievement are directly tied to the social divisions associated with race, ethnicity, gender, first language, and social class. The level and quality of educational attainment either open the doors to opportunity or close them. Education starts at home, in neighborhoods, and in communities. Reading to children, creating time and space for homework, and demonstrating-through words and deeds-that education is important are the key first building blocks for high educational achievement. While schools are responsible for what children are taught, reinforcement at home is essential. As members of the black community, we must take responsibility for educating all our children-whether ours by birth or otherwise-to uplift our people as a whole. - excerpt from Edmund W. Gordon's essay in the Covenant with Black America"

"Support, Technology, and Professional Development for Online Learning: The SUNY Learning Network is a partnership with SUNY Campuses to provide support in the areas of pedagogy, technology, student and faculty support and marketing services. With award-winning support from the SUNY Learning Network, SUNY campuses have been empowered to offer thousands of online courses in scores of degree programs to tens of thousands of students. SLN-supported courses redefine online learning. They integrate today's students into learning environments that provide intensive interaction, individual attention, high standards, and enhanced learning outcomes. The SUNY Learning Network (SLN) was established to increase access to SUNY's academic programs and maintain consistently high-quality online pedagogy. SLN supports the full range of online learning, from courses that use the Web to enhance in-class teaching, through courses and full degree programs available completely online. You can read more about how SLN evolved on the SLN History page."

"In2Books was created in 1997 to enhance the intellectually stimulating work available to students in low-income neighborhoods. A basic tenet of In2Books is that all children are capable of deep learning. Children cannot fully develop their learning potential without challenging learning experiences. In2Books promotes ambitious literacy learning in grades 2-5 by having students engage in authentic reading and writing experiences with adult pen pals. The pen pal experience is complemented by the classroom study of genre and genre-related literacy. From its inception, In2Books has focused especially on under-resourced neighborhood where many students come from low-income, culturally diverse backgrounds. The thought-provoking In2Books curriculum includes carefully-chosen, high quality diverse books and research-proven teaching strategies. The strategies are aligned to grade-level literacy standards and science, social studies, and language arts instruction."

"StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 30,000 interviews from more than 60,000 participants. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, and millions listen to our weekly broadcasts on NPR's Morning Edition and on our Listen pages. View our story: from modest start up to national movement. Read our mission and principles. Download our Annual Reports."

"Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type. The most obvious change is that you get to the right content much faster than before because you don't have to finish typing your full search term, or even press "search." Another shift is that seeing results as you type helps you formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. You can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. In time, we may wonder how search ever worked in any other way. Benefits | Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search. Smarter Predictions: Even when you don't know exactly what you're looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need. Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you're headed, every step of the way."

"Teaching for Change provides teachers and parents with the tools to transform schools into centers of justice where students learn to read, write and change the world. Established in 1989, Teaching for Change operates from the belief that schools can provide students the skills, knowledge and inspiration to be citizens and architects of a better world - or they can fortify the status quo. By drawing direct connections to 'real world' issues, Teaching for Change encourages teachers and students to question and re-think the world inside and outside their classrooms, build a more equitable, multicultural society, and become active global citizens."

"What is Orchard? Orchard Software provides targeted instruction in math, reading, writing, language arts, and science for grades K-9. Combining formative and benchmark assessments aligned with state standards, motivating instruction, and qualitative data reporting, Orchard Software is the preferred choice for thousands of schools across the country looking to improve AYP. Orchard Software provides schools with a powerful solution that enables educators to adapt and deliver both individualized and whole class instruction that meets the needs of all students, including ELL learners and those with special needs. Orchard has proven effective in helping teachers differentiate instruction in multilevel classes and provides flexible pricing and scalability so that any classroom, school, or district can implement and take advantage of Orchard's research-based and motivating content."

"The Tritone Music Series is an applied, internet-based, keyboard and piano music training system that introduces the beginner to the fundamentals of music and performance through a series of interactive multimedia lessons and activities. It serves as an aid to the music specialist teacher and the classroom teacher in providing a consistent level of content and musical instruction to students. Tritone's integrated e-learning courseware includes: 1. Tritone Music Series - a comprehensive online music curriculum based on an internationally proven popular piano methodology developed by Great West Music. Beginner Music 1 is the first course of the series. It consists of three learning modules plus an exam and teaches the fundamentals of music and performance. Musical concepts are introduced through a rich multimedia (text, audio, graphics, video, and animation) environment. Lessons are reinforced with fun, interactive and motivating activities that provide instant feedback and address all types of learning. Structure - Each learning module is divided into a series of units and a quiz. Each unit consists of chapters and within each chapter are lesson and activity pages. At the end of each unit and at the beginning of most units are a summary, work sheets and review. Tritone Music Series content can be customized to meet grade learning outcomes. 2. Javatrax - an assessment sequencer specially designed to help the student develop good practicing habits so that they can learn their songs more effectively. Javatrax simulates the process of the student playing along with the teacher as they learn each stage (hands separately and hands together) of a song. Javatrax assesses the student's performance and gives a graphical display of pitch, timing and expression so that they can see where improvement is needed. Javatrax is also used for sight-reading and ear training drills. 3. Javakeys - a virtual keyboard feature incorporated into Tritone's Javatrax evaluatio

"ALISON is a for-profit social enterprise based in Galway, Ireland. We are a resourceful and determined multi-national team of socially-aware technologists, educationalists and marketers who understand that today, we have the opportunity to make universal education free to access via the Web. Through ALISON, we believe we have a sustainable and scalable business model to make education free online. Our starting point is basic skills for the workplace, and for that, we provide a range of high-quality courses. We have a range of courses to be launched over the next few months. Since our launch in April 2007, we have developed relationships with some of the largest and most prestigious institutions involved in promoting education and learning. We believe ALISON can make a profound impact on people's lives and livelihoods around the world. We cannot however succeed in this on our own. To learn more about how you might be able to assist the ALISON mission, click here. We believe that the ALISON model of education can save governments and educational institutions billions of dollars every year if adopted. Read how ALISON can help you as an individual learner, a teacher or trainer, or as an organization. Across the world, billions of people do not have access to high-quality skills-based interactive learning. The reason for this is usually distance and cost. The Internet changes this dynamic, and now ALISON can provide an educational opportunity like none before. Cost and distance need not be a barrier to universal learning. Through your use and support of ALISON, we can break down these barriers to learning permanently!"

"Saving the Google students For the Google generation, closing school libraries could be disastrous. Not teaching kids how to sift through sources is like sending them into the world without knowing how to read."

"The Nation's Report CardTM informs the public about the academic achievement of elementary and secondary students in the United States. Report cards communicate the findings of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a continuing and nationally representative measure of achievement in various subjects over time. Since 1969, NAEP assessments have been conducted periodically in reading, mathematics, science, writing, U.S. history, civics, geography, and other subjects. NAEP collects and reports information on student performance at the national, state, and local levels, making the assessment an integral part of our nation's evaluation of the condition and progress of education. Only academic achievement data and related background information are collected. The privacy of individual students and their families is protected. NAEP is a congressionally authorized project of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. The Commissioner of Education Statistics is responsible for carrying out the NAEP project. The National Assessment Governing Board oversees and sets policy for NAEP"

"AAP's mandate covers both the general and the specific - broad issues important to all publishers as well as issues of specific concern to particular segments of the industry. The Association's "core" programs deal with matters of general interest:intellectual property; new technology and digital issues of concern to publishers; Freedom to read, censorship and libel; international freedom to publish; funding for education and libraries; postal rates and regulations; tax and trade policy; international copyright enforcement. Directed by standing committees of the Association, these programs, along with a host of membership services including government affairs, a broad-based statistical program, public information and press relations, are the "core" activities of the Association."