Educational Software Cooperative Announces Annual Awards

Boston, Massachusetts - July, 2008 - The Educational Software Cooperative (ESC) held its 13th Annual Meeting in Boston during the Software Industry Conference (SIC). ESC announced the ESC's People's Choice Award for Best Educational Software. The 2008 winner is Darrin Wong of Prodigy Creator - www.prodigycreator.com/PCEindex.html - for his program, WhizKidz.

Two additional ESC members won awards at SIC: Yutaka Emura of Emurasoft, Inc. - www.emurasoft.com - received the award for Best Application for his program EmEditor, and Bernie Marasco of StepWare, Inc. - www.stepware.com/ - received the People's Choice Award for Best Educational Program or Game for his program AceReader Pro.

The Educational Software Cooperative is a nonprofit corporation bringing together developers, publishers, distributors, and users of educational software. To learn more about the ESC, visit their web site at http://www.edu-soft.org/ or write to them at ESC, 127 The Ranch Rd., DelValle, Texas 78617 USA. You can download trial versions of ESC members' software from http://www.edu-soft.org/padlib/index.php and read ESC's blog on http://educationalsoftware.blogspot.com/. For more information about the Software Industry Conference, visit www.sic.org.

Congressional Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings this evening issued the following statement on Congressional reauthorization of the Higher Education Act:

"I congratulate Congress for its hard work in concluding the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which seeks to tackle many complex and challenging issues that are vexing to students and their families, as well as to institutions. The Administration supports many of the bill's provisions, which are designed to enact needed reforms and address the problems facing colleges, students and families in the 21st Century. However we remain concerned with the creation of more than 60 new, costly, and duplicative programs.

Higher education has been a priority for this Administration. In 2005, my bipartisan Commission on the Future of U.S. Higher Education launched a robust national dialogue on the need to strengthen higher education to remain competitive in today's knowledge-based global economy. One year later, the Spellings Commission issued a comprehensive report that, among other things, cited specific recommendations to make higher education more accessible, more affordable, and more accountable.

While the legislation takes some positive steps forward, it fails to create the necessary reforms in accessibility and affordability, and it falls short on strengthening accountability. More work can—and must—be done to make achievement outcomes more transparent to students and families.

For the sake of students who are committed to achieving their dreams through the pursuit of higher education, we must remain vigilant in advancing policies that support their goals. This bill represents another important step but we still have a long way to go."

ESC Members Win Awards

Congratulations to ESC members who received awards at the 2008 Software Industry Conference.

The winner of this year's ESC People's Choice Award for Best Educational Software, announced at ESC's annual luncheon, is WhizKidz by Prodigy Creator (ESC member Darrin Wong).

At the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation banquet EmEditor by Emurasoft, Inc. (ESC member Yutaka Emura), received the award for Best Application, and AceReader Pro by StepWare, Inc. (ESC member Bernie Marasco), received the People's Choice Award for Best Educational Program or Game.

For information on past winners of ESC's awards, see http://www.edu-soft.org/content/index.php/annual-awards. For information on the Shareware Industry Awards, see http://www.sharewareindustryawards.com/.

Member of the Month July '08

Congratulations to Fabian Roeken of Arbeitsblatt Profi, ESC's Member
of the Month for July, featured at
http://www.edu-soft.org/content/index.php/member-of-the-month