StudySync and McGraw-Hill Collaborate to Offer Engaging Digital Learning Products for English Language Arts

NEW YORK, March 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- StudySync and McGraw-Hill today announced an exclusive marketing and distribution partnership that will combine StudySync's dynamic digital content and platform for English Language Arts with McGraw-Hill's acclaimed instructional resources and sales expertise. As part of the agreement, McGraw-Hill will distribute the award-winning StudySync literacy program for Grades 6-12, and the two companies will collaborate to develop new digital products and services for the U.S. educational market.

StudySync, powered by BookheadEd Learning LLC, is a cross-curricular platform built from the Common Core State Standards that brings together centuries of fiction and nonfiction texts with video and other multimedia elements to advance students' reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. StudySync – an anywhere, anytime, any device experience – offers literacy instruction, interdisciplinary collaboration, peer-to-peer review and assessment that is searchable by genre, theme, grade and Lexile® level.

"With information available at the swipe of a finger, education in the 21st century must engage students to inspire academic excellence and foster creativity. To be successful, students must aspire to higher levels of reading and writing, learn how to build knowledge to support their opinions and think critically as they parse the plethora of material so simply at their disposal," said Robert Romano, CEO of StudySync. "Our partnership with McGraw-Hill serves to address those essential changes in education by bringing together substance and form to produce the best teaching resources possible to help students achieve success in college and career."

"Today's educators and students are counting on us to transform their learning experiences through digital technology, and our partnership with StudySync will help us achieve that in the area of English Language Arts," said Peter Cohen, president of McGraw-Hill School Education Group. "StudySync is a standout product that successfully integrates the latest innovations in technology with effective curriculum and pedagogy for an era of more rigorous educational standards. Combining it with our programs and services will help educators not only boost engagement but drive results."

The StudySync solution also includes weekly "Blasts" and offers a proprietary online peer-to-peer review process. Blasts are short answer writing assignments around significant current events that serve as the basis for students' engaging in meaningful discussions with peers across the globe. In addition to authentic text-based lessons, Blasts, and peer review, StudySync includes an award-winning library of more than 120 broadcast-quality SyncTV episodes that model study group collaboration and analysis of a wide selection of fiction and nonfiction works.