Press Releases

REDWOOD CITY, CA — June 21, 2007 — Every parent today struggles with finding enough time to seek out high-quality information and resources with respect to the education of their children. Although the information is often available, it’s difficult to find and is usually more anecdotal than authoritative. Education.com today unveiled an easy to use, comprehensive, one-stop online destination that helps parents and educators solve these problems. Education.com empowers parents and educators of children ages pre-school through grade 12 to take an ever more active role in their childrens’ education. Education.com offers easily accessible, high-quality educational and developmental content including:

• Over 4,000 reference articles from the best and most authoritative sources across the Web
• Editorial content that encourages parents to take learning beyond the classroom and incorporate it into children ‘s every day lives
• Vibrant online communities where parents with similar interests or challenges can connect and share their experiences with one another

“Every parent has questions concerning their children’s education, but it’s often unclear where they can go for answers. Those who turn to the Web find that educational resources are fragmented and inconsistent,” according to Ron Fortune, CEO of Education.com. “The ultimate goal of Education.com is to empower parents to help their children succeed. Education is not strictly limited to academic instruction, so whether it’s helping parents choose a school or helping keep kids happy, healthy and motivated, our hope is to provide a resource that minimizes the time spent searching for answers and allows for more time to focus on a child’s education.” 

According to a recent Education.com survey conducted by Harris Interactive®, 74% of parents of children ages 18 and under said they wished they had a single resource they could turn to for information and answers about education and 96% of parents believe they need to take an active role in their children’s education in order to fill in the gaps in public school education. Education.com provides a one-stop online destination that offers comprehensive reference materials for parents to get accurate answers to all of their questions, quickly and in one place.

“The Web contains a wealth of information on every topic ranging from health to shopping,” said Michael Moe, CEO of ThinkEquity Partners, LLC. However, it’s often difficult to separate the trustworthy information from the junk. Because parents have limited free time during the day, a central and trusted resource for education is imperative. With Education.com, parents can find answers to questions quickly and feel confident that the information is coming from a trusted source.”

Single Most Important Education Resource Online
The core philosophy of Education.com revolves around empowering parents to play a larger role in their child’s educational success. Education.com provides parents with an essential offering of information and services related to their children’s education through the following:

• Expert Editorial:  Fresh, relevant and timely editorial content written by parents and educators in an easy to understand style with clear takeaways and tips. 
• Authoritative Reference Articles:  Over 4,000 easily searchable reference articles aggregated from the most trusted universities, professional associations, non-profit institutes and federal governmental organizations in the country to provide parents with the most accurate information on the Web.
• Online Community of Experts, Parents, and Teachers:  Virtual neighborhoods where parents, educators, and experts can connect and learn from one another’s experiences via forums, discussion groups, user-generated content and social search features.

Respected Universities, Non-Profits and Leading Providers of Educational Tools Partner with Education.com to Provide Reference Content
Education.com is teaming up with an impressive roster of notable partners and organizations including, NYU Child Study Center, Autism Society of America, National Association for the Education of Young Children, Reading Is Fundamental, Partnership for Learning, National Head Start Association, American School Counselors Association, Nemours Foundation, Stanford University School of Education, LeapFrog and many more. These partners and organizations will share resources and informational content to provide parents and educators with answers to all of their most pressing questions and educational issues.

Diverse Array of Experts and Original Editorial Content
Education.com will feature reputable experts who will contribute to the site, including: Lisa Medoff Ph.D., Child Psychologist, Patty Wipfler, Founding Director of the parenting non-profit Hand in Hand, and Rae Pica, an expert on how play affects cognitive development.

Education.com Executive Team
Education.com’s executive team is comprised of both parents and educators. The company is led by CEO, Ron Fortune, whose commitment to education stemmed from being a parent and former CEO of Edumetrics Learning and Computer Curriculum Corporation where he built software to educate children. Education.com Vice President of Marketing, Todd Schwartz, is former Executive VP of IPG Media, and owner of directMass. Danielle Wood, Director of Editorial is a mother and veteran of the publishing industry whose articles have appeared in a number of newspapers and magazines including Newsweek, Stanford Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, and Plenty. Recently, the company raised funding from Azure Capital and TeleSoft Partners.

About the Survey
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Education.com between May 29 and May 31, 2007 among 2,333 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for region, age within gender, education, household income and race/ethnicity were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. With a pure probability sample of 2,333, one could say with a ninety-five percent probability that the overall results would have a sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points. Sampling error for data based on the sub-sample of parents of children ages 18 and under (n= 588) is +/- 6 percentage points. However, that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

About Education.com
Education.com is a one-stop online destination for educational information and services for parents of children in preschool through grade 12. The site offers the ability for parents to easily find reference articles, editorial content, like-minded communities and tools to answer education related questions. Education.com, headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., was founded in 2006. The company is backed by leading venture capital firms, Azure Capital and TeleSoft Partners. For more information, please visit www.education.com.

Media Contact:
Kat Eden
Education.com
(650) 366-3380 x2218
pr@education.com