ANN ARBOR, Mich., October 16, 2006 - ProQuest Company announced today that Vocabulary A-Z, a ProQuest LearningPage product, is a winner of the Technology & Learning Award of Excellence. The award honors technology-based curriculum products that break new ground in a significant way and also "best-of-breed" examples that demonstrate clear superiority over similar products in the market. The winners, chosen by more than 35 educator-judges who tested the 110+ entries, will be featured in the December 2006 issue of Technology & Learning

“We value the Technology & Learning Award of Excellence for its recognition of the highest quality education products available today,” says John Campbell, senior vice president of ProQuest Education.  “Supporting vocabulary is a critical component to improving reading comprehension, and Vocabulary A-Z, like all ProQuest LearningPage resources, provides teachers with an affordable resource to accomplish this goal. We’re honored that Vocabulary A-Z has been recognized.”

Launched in March 2006, Vocabulary A-Z is an online vocabulary lesson builder enabling teachers to generate custom vocabulary lessons that reflect research-evidenced best practices and support the need for differentiated instruction, a teaching model recognizing the diverse learning needs of each child in the classroom.  Teachers can choose from a dynamic word bank with new words added each month. The website currently has more than 4,500 words covering dozens of topics and categories, including:

1. Vocabulary in core subjects including English, math, science, and social studies
2. Vocabulary in other subject areas such as arts, health, and everyday words
3. Word functions such as adjectives, verbs, and antonyms. 

The vocabulary lesson generator creates downloadable, printable resources that give teachers everything needed for a week’s work of instruction per lesson plan, at a fraction of the cost of traditional print workbooks and worksheets. Materials include lesson plans, pacing, rubrics, worksheets, games, activities, and pre-and post-assessment tools.

“As a leading K-12 content provider, ProQuest strives to provide innovative delivery of research-based teaching materials that help educators improve student achievement at every grade level,” said Bob Holl, co-founder and vice president of ProQuest LearningPage. “Vocabulary A-Z fulfills that mission by meeting the considerable need for affordable, easily accessed resources for differentiated reading instruction.”

Vocabulary A-Z solidly supports the vocabulary pillar of No Child Left Behind (one of the five pillars of reading comprehension as set forth in NCLB legislation: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) and recommendations by the National Reading Panel.  Along with other ProQuest LearningPage resources, Vocabulary A-Z is designed to give schools affordable access to a comprehensive collection of quality, customizable, research-based supplemental teaching materials.

For more information visit www.proquestk12.com. 

About ProQuest
ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning. A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the expertise of such respected brands as Chadwyck-Healey™, UMI®, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich's™, RefWorks®, COS™, Dialog® and now Bowker® part of the ProQuest brand family, the company supports the breadth of the information community with innovative discovery solutions that power the business of books and the best in research experience.

More than a content provider or aggregator, ProQuest is an information partner, creating indispensable research solutions that connect people and information. Through innovative, user-centered discovery technology, ProQuest offers billions of pages of global content that includes historical newspapers, dissertations, and uniquely relevant resources for researchers of any age and sophistication—including content not likely to be digitized by others. Inspired by its customers and their end users, ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment.

For more information, visit www.proquest.com or the ProQuest parent company website, www.cig.com.