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National Geographic Leads New Group of Publishers To Sign on as Publishing Partners for Wireless Generation's Handheld Observational Assessment Tool, mCLASS:Reading™ Leveled Readers from BeBop Books, Benchmark Education and Heinemann Classroom will be Featured on mCLASS:Reading New York - December 17, 2002 - Wireless Generation, a leading producer of state-of-the-art handheld technology products for K - 12 education, announces new publishing partnerships with National Geographic and three other key educational publishers for mCLASS:Reading, its breakthrough observational assessment tool for early reading. These new partnerships bring to eleven the number of leading publishers with whom the company has partnered. In addition to National Geographic, the latest companies to make their leveled readers available on mCLASS:Reading include books from BeBop, Benchmark Education, and Heinemann Classroom. The four new partners add their books to mCLASS:Reading's Literacy Library that already includes titles from Wright Group, Capstone Press, Compass Point Books, Newbridge Educational Publishing, Pacific Learning, Reading A-Z, and Sundance Publishing. The announcement of additional publishers gives teachers an even broader array of best-loved books to use for their on-going classroom-based reading assessments. mCLASS:Reading is a unique assessment solution that combines the ease of use of handheld computers with powerful back-end database systems to enable K - 3 teachers to perform observational reading assessments as an integrated part of their classroom instruction. mCLASS:Reading is designed to give teachers both the data and the time they need to ensure that every student is a successful reader. mCLASS:Reading - which works with assessment protocols widely used in paper-based formats - is particularly helpful to teachers who do oral reading records. With Wireless Generation's dynamic new assessment system, a broad set of data-rich reports can be quickly generated to help teachers understand student and class progress and instructional needs. Administrators can also better understand critical information on student reading progress. "We're pleased to partner with Wireless Generation on their innovative reading assessment tool mCLASS:Reading," said Erika Markman, President, Children's Books and Educational Publishing Group, National Geographic Society. "Providing teachers with a quick and easy way to assess progress of their students using leveled readers makes an important contribution to the classroom" Markman said. The mCLASS:Reading Literacy Library, which is fully available with the program, is an especially valuable resource to help teachers select appropriate books for their students based on reading level, interests, language, and other criteria. Because these books come from a wide array of publishers, educators will find books from their own classroom libraries as well as discover hundreds of new leveled-readers, which they can buy separately from the publishers. Larry Berger, Wireless Generation CEO said, "I am enormously impressed by the quality of the offerings of our new partners. Each publisher has obviously taken great care in creating books children will want to read. And each publisher also brings unique perspectives to the task of helping children learn to read. For example, BeBop Books let even the youngest students enjoy multicultural reading experiences; Benchmark Education books are noted for their particularly engaging photo illustrations; Heinemann Classroom is known for its focus on national standards and teacher resources; and National Geographic brings its expertise in social studies and science to life in its leveled readers." About National Geographic Founded in 1888, the National Geographic Society is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. It reaches more than 200 million people worldwide each month through its various multimedia ventures. National Geographic has funded more than 7,000 scientific research projects and supports an education program combating geographic illiteracy. Contact: About BeBop Books Contact: Craig Low, Vice President
at clow@leeandlow.com
About Benchmark Education Company www.benchmarkeducation.com About Heinemann Classroom Contact: Jim West, Director of Marketing at jwest@hil.com About Wireless Generation Wireless Generation is located at 11 East 26th Street, New York, NY 10010. The company can be reached at 212 213-8177 and on the Web at www.wirelessgeneration.com. |
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