Cincinnati (Oct. 8, 2009) – A top 100 national ranking of school districts, indicating which districts keep students safest when searching online, was released today. The 2008-2009 school year Safe Search Awards Index was broken out by small-, medium- and large-sized districts. For the third year in a row, Forsyth County Schools in suburban Atlanta finished first for the large-sized districts, with over 7.3 million safe searches for the 2008-2009 school year. For the mid-sized districts, Tangipahoa Parish School System in Louisiana led with 1,875,328 searches, and Austin Public Schools in Minnesota came in first with 675,485 searches among small-sized districts.

The Safe Search Awards Index was administered by netTrekker, a leader in the delivery of digital K-12 educational resources. netTrekker is the leading safe educational search tool designed to engage students through personalized learning, and is used by millions of students and teachers in thousands of schools worldwide.

Educators are increasingly seeking out safe digital resources and tools that help students achieve. netTrekker’s expert team of educators reviews each resource for academic integrity, age appropriateness, and safety. netTrekker also delivers a unique set of personalized learning tools that helps educators and students identify exactly the right resources to meet each student’s individual learning needs. Fast and easy access to netTrekker’s 300,000 engaging lesson plans, videos, images, learning games, and manipulatives ensures educators find resources at the right level to help every student learn and achieve.

“Forsyth County Schools is so very honored to receive this recognition for a third straight year. netTrekker is an integral part of our strategy for providing quality learning opportunities that engage students,” said Jill Hobson, director of instructional technology for Forsyth County Schools. “Like districts across the country, one of our most important instructional goals is to individualize instruction to meet each student's needs. Differentiation by content, process and product are made easier with netTrekker's tool set. From identifying Web resources by reading level to using the read-aloud feature to organizing instructional resources with the My Portfolio tool, netTrekker is a wonderful partner in this work.”

Each of the top districts will be awarded with the equivalent of a $5,000 prize package, specifically designed to provide a new 21st century learning solution. The prize package includes one day of netTrekker professional development workshops and assorted netTrekker premium items, plus eight seats in the CyberSmart! Online Workshop Authentic Learning and Creativity, designed to give educators hands-on experience in 21st century skills to meet the learning needs of today’s students.

“Teachers and students in Tangipahoa Parish School System are in great need of safe online resources of excellent quality that help in the teaching and learning process and netTrekker provides that for us,” added Vicki Blackwell, director of technology for Tangipahoa Parish School System. “With access from school and home, educators and students are able to use content that is aligned to standards, relevant and age-appropriate. Research on the Internet has never been more user-friendly, and we are extremely lucky to have netTrekker as a tool to help increase student achievement.”

“netTrekker is transforming the way we use the Internet for education. It increases efficiency and provides our staff and students with web-based content that meets the needs of individual learners and has revolutionized the way students do research,” said Corey Haugen, director of instructional technology for Austin Public Schools. “In addition, linking results from our Scantron Performance Series Assessment System to netTrekker’s educational resources is helping us to meet the demands of NCLB.”

The top three school districts in each category include:

Large-Size:

• 1. Forsyth County Schools, Cumming, Ga.
• 2. Sacramento City Unified School District, Sacramento, Calif.
• 3. Orange County Public Schools, Orlando, Fla.

Mid-Size:

• 1. Tangipahoa Parish School System, Amite, La.
• 2. Blue Springs School District, Blue Springs, Mo.
• 3. Valley View Community Unit School District 365U, Romeoville, Ill.

Small-Size:

• 1. Austin Public Schools, Austin, Minn.
• 2. Lemont-Bromberek School District 113A, Ill.
• 3. Madison Public School District, Madison, Conn.

More Information

Visit www.netTrekker.com or phone 877-517-1125.

About netTrekker

netTrekker is a leader in the delivery of digital K-12 educational content. The company is dedicated to enhancing the education of today’s youth with highly effective technologies that deliver the rich educational value of the Internet to every child in a safe, relevant, easy-to-use format. netTrekker is the #1 educational search tool and was first to market with a standards-based solution utilizing the services of Academic Benchmarks (www.AcademicBenchmarks.com), the premier provider of comprehensive standards-based K-12 educational databases, alignment tools, and integration products. Peers, educators, and parents have honored netTrekker more than 25 times for its contribution to education. Founded in 1999 by Robert Reinders, the company serves millions of students and thousands of schools around the world.

Contacts

netTrekker
Laura Hannah
Marketing Manager
513-731-4090
lhannah at netTrekker dot com
www.netTrekker.com

C. Blohm & Associates, Inc.
Kristen Plemon
608-839-9805
kristen at cblohm dot com
www.cblohm.com

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