The Huffington Post Launches Education Section Inspired By 'Waiting For 'Superman'' Documentary

NEW YORK, Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The Huffington Post ("HuffPost") a leading social news and opinion site, today announces the launch of "HuffPost Education," a new education section inspired by the issues raised in WAITING FOR "SUPERMAN," the documentary by Academy Award®-winning director Davis Guggenheim. HuffPost Education serves as a one-stop-shop education "hub," featuring up-to-the-minute news and features, blog posts, video, and community engagement around America's troubled education system. The section is produced in partnership with Causecast, a leading cause marketing and technology solutions provider, and is the latest content "vertical" to be added to The Huffington Post, which continues its expansion as "The Internet Newspaper." Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, made the announcement.

"The Huffington Post is thrilled to launch HuffPost Education -- a new section that highlights and builds on the issues raised in WAITING FOR 'SUPERMAN,'" said Arianna Huffington. "Education has always been the great equalizer in America: the chance for each succeeding generation to improve their minds -- and their lives. But something has gone terribly wrong with our education system, and this failure has profound consequences for America's future. Our nation's education crisis demands 'the fierce urgency of now,' and that's why HuffPost Education looks at the problems plaguing our schools but also focuses on the innovative solutions being proposed and implemented all across the country. Last but not least, it's an opportunity to celebrate and support the many teachers who, despite a broken system, are doing heroic work."

HuffPost Education serves as a hub for education news and trends -- from school success stories and teacher profiles to tips for parents and the latest research and expert analysis. The section features broad-ranging coverage of what's happening at schools across the country, and around the world, including curricula, testing, resource allocation, teacher training, and more. HuffPost Education highlights the important work that teachers are doing as well as provides them with a real-time forum to discuss the issues impacting them. As part of this, the section will highlight great teachers from around the country, and feature the innovative ways they are getting children to learn. It is also home to a spirited ongoing conversation about what's gone wrong with America's educational system -- and what needs to be done to fix it -- featuring topical takes from an eclectic mix of stakeholders in the education debate.

Said Ryan Scott, CEO of Causecast: "We're delighted to announce the expansion of our HuffPost partnership with the launch of HuffPost Education. Like HuffPost Impact, our award winning service and philanthropy vertical, HuffPost Education strives to move the needle forward by providing inspiring content combined with tools that let readers take action. The aim is to be the definitive online hub for addressing the education crisis, a forum for the best and most innovative minds in America to discuss the current and future state of our public education system, and a venue for everyday participation."

About The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com) is a leading social news and opinion site which in four and a half years has become an influential and oft-quoted media brand, "The Internet Newspaper." The site offers coverage of politics, media, business, entertainment, living, style, sustainable "green" living, world news, technology, nonprofits, college life, books, religion, food and comedy, and is a top destination for news, blogs and original content. The Huffington Post ("HuffPost") has over 40 million unique visitors per month (source: Google Analytics) and is the "most-linked-to blog" on the Internet, per Technorati.  In 2008, the site launched its first local version, HuffPost Chicago; HuffPost New York, HuffPost Denver and HuffPost LA launched in 2009. The Huffington Post has an active community, with over three million comments made on the site each month. HuffPost Social News launched in partnership with Facebook in 2009 to leverage the power of social networking to allow readers to create their own personalized social networking-like news page on HuffPost itself. The Huffington Post Twitter Edition launched in 2010. HuffPost has 6,000 bloggers -- from politicians and celebrities to academics and policy experts -- who contribute in real-time on a wide-range of topics making news today. Among those who have blogged on HuffPost are Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Larry David, Nora Ephron, Larry Page, Madeleine Albright, Robert Redford, Neil Young, Rahm Emanuel, Albert Brooks, Mia Farrow, Russ Feingold, Al Franken, Ari Emanuel, Gary Hart, Harry Shearer, John Kerry, Bill Maher, Nancy Pelosi, Madonna, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ryan Reynolds, Craig Newmark, Alec Baldwin, Donna Karan, Kenneth Cole and Donatella Versace. A comprehensive list of the contributors to The Huffington Post can be found in its blogger index: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/index/.

About Causecast

Causecast is a full-service cause integration company that provides custom solutions to nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Causecast leverages media and technology platforms to develop cause marketing campaigns, provide fundraising and volunteer management tools to nonprofits, and support for-profit CSR with a patent pending employee engagement platform. Clients include AARP, The Huffington Post, Ben Stiller, Malaria No More, John Legend's Show Me Campaign, The National Forensics League, Charity: Water.

About WAITING FOR "SUPERMAN"

From AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH director Davis Guggenheim comes WAITING FOR "SUPERMAN," a provocative and cogent examination of the crisis of public education in the United States told through multiple interlocking stories—from a handful of students and their families whose futures hang in the balance, to the educators and reformers trying to find real and lasting solutions within a dysfunctional system. Tackling such politically radioactive topics as the power of teachers' unions and the entrenchment of school bureaucracies, Guggenheim reveals the invisible forces that have held true education reform back for decades.

The film is produced by Lesley Chilcott, with Participant Media's Jeff Skoll and Diane Weyermann serving as executive producers. It is written by Davis Guggenheim & Billy Kimball.

About Paramount Pictures Corporation

Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands.  The company's labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies.  PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group, and Worldwide Television Distribution.

About Participant Media

Participant Media is a Los Angeles-based entertainment company that focuses on socially relevant, commercially viable feature films, documentaries and television, as well as publishing and digital media. Participant Media is headed by CEO Jim Berk and was founded in 2004 by philanthropist Jeff Skoll, who serves as Chairman. Ricky Strauss is President.

Participant exists to tell compelling, entertaining stories that bring to the forefront real issues that shape our lives.  For each of its projects, Participant creates extensive social action and advocacy programs, which provide ideas and tools to transform the impact of the media experience into individual and community action. Participant's films include The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson's War, Darfur Now, An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana, Standard Operating Procedure, The Visitor, The Soloist, Food, Inc., The Informant!, The Cove, The Crazies, Oceans, Furry Vengeance, CASINO JACK and the United States of Money, Countdown to Zero and Waiting for "Superman."

About Walden Media

Walden Media specializes in entertainment for the whole family. Past award-winning films include: "The Chronicles of Narnia" series, "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "Nim's Island" and "Charlotte's Web." Upcoming films include the third installment in the Narnia series "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."

SOURCE The Huffington Post