Cricket Media Partners with ThinkCERCA to Provide Standards-Based Content Offerings to Students and Teachers across the Curriculum

WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ - Cricket Media, an education media company and global learning network, announced a three-year extension of its partnership with ThinkCERCA, an online literacy platform that empowers teachers to personalize literacy instruction across disciplines. This extension will deepen the two companies' existing partnership, adding significant value to teacher offerings and continuing their shared mission of enhancing student literacy.

As part of the expanded partnership, the two companies will collaborate to pair Cricket Media's educational texts with ThinkCERCA's literacy platform. As a result, nearly 250,000 students will have access to Cricket's content via ThinkCERCA's engaging lessons that teach the critical thinking, reading and writing skills necessary for success in college and career. ThinkCERCA's curriculum designers will use Cricket Media's Concierge Service, a service that provides ThinkCERCA with curated content designed to support ThinkCERCA's learning framework.

"I am delighted by ThinkCERCA's decision to expand our current partnership," said Cricket Media CEO, Katya Andresen. "We have worked together for two years to provide unique and high quality content for their programs and by extending our partnership, we serve more classrooms with richer learning experiences across the world." 

The partnership will expand ThinkCERCA's library of authentic, leveled texts and close reading and argumentative writing lessons. ThinkCERCA is committed to meeting the needs of all students, and this new content helps both companies engage students of all readiness levels with rich and rigorous texts that are accessible to them.

"Working with Cricket Media gives ThinkCERCA the opportunity to expand our network, access valuable content and build stronger lesson plans for teachers around the country," said Eileen Murphy Buckley, CEO of ThinkCERCA. "Our partnership builds off our robust library of authentic texts and content as we work to create a lasting education product that provides every student with the skills they need to succeed on tests, in college and beyond."

Cricket Media is one of the world's most respected children's media companies. Its magazines have won 60 Parents' Choice Awards since 2012 and have been awarded the Paul A. Witty Short Story Award from the International Reading Association more times than any other children's magazine publisher.

ThinkCERCA has received recognition from luminaries across the technology space for its ability to empower teachers and develop the critical thinking and academic writing skills necessary for students to succeed in college and career. Its product has been recognized by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Chicago Innovation Awards and EdSurge for its ability to boost student learning across the curriculum.

About Cricket Media  

Cricket Media (TSXV: CKT) is an education media company that provides award-winning content on a safe and secure learning network for children, families and teachers across the world.  Cricket Media's 11 popular media brands for toddlers to teens include Babybug, Ladybug, Cricket® and Cobblestone®.  The Company's innovative web-based K12 tools for school and home include the ePals community and virtual classroom for global collaboration as well as In2Books®, a Common Core eMentoring program that builds reading, writing and critical thinking skills.  Cricket Media serves approximately one million classrooms and millions of teachers, students and parents in over 200 countries and territories through its platform and NeuPals, its joint venture with China's leading IT services company Neusoft. Cricket Media also licenses its content and platform to top publishing and educational companies worldwide.  For more information, please visit www.cricketmedia.com.

About ThinkCERCA

ThinkCERCA's personalized literacy platform helps teachers unleash students' critical reading and writing powers. With nearly 250,000 students using its platform in all 50 states and 130 countries, the company has partnered with prominent leaders in education, including Follett Corporation, and has been featured by The Atlantic, Education Week, and EdSurge. In July 2013, ThinkCERCA was the recipient of a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Literacy Courseware Challenge grant, and in December 2012, graduated from the inaugural class of Impact Engine's social impact accelerator. To learn more, please visit www.ThinkCERCA.com.

SOURCE Cricket Media Inc.