Benchmark Education Company Wins an “Excellence in Equity” Award

NEW ROCHELLE, NY, Dec. 6, 2022— Leading educational publisher Benchmark Education Company (BEC) is pleased to announce that it was selected as a winner in the inaugural Excellence in Equity Awards, presented by the American Consortium for Equity in Education. BEC received the award in the Best Diversity and Inclusion Solution category, for its program, Authentic Voices Library.

“We’re honored and gratified to have received an award that reflects our deep commitment to diversity and inclusion,” BEC founder and CEO Tom Reycraft said. “Our goal has always been to produce and provide inclusive content that enables students to see themselves, their lives, and their backgrounds, and empowers them with the agency and skills to succeed in school and beyond. Authentic Voices Library exemplifies that goal, and we couldn’t happier that it has been recognized in this way.”

Benchmark Universe is designed to create a cohesive, integrated environment for Grades K-8 that makes teaching and learning more efficient and effective. The platform provides educators with a wealth of resources to streamline planning, teaching, assessment, and reporting, while also offering students engaging learning experiences. It enables teachers to fill virtual libraries with high-interest ebooks, provide students with reading assignments and assessments with a click of the mouse, blend classroom instruction with interactive resources, and more. Students can easily view and work on their reading assignments, write, and share book reviews with their teachers and classmates and perform other learning tasks.

Authentic Voices Library features hundreds of original print and digital books written by a diverse team of respected and acclaimed authors who craft authentic, culturally inclusive texts that reflect students’ real-world experiences and spotlight underrepresented groups. The books are designed not just to ensure that all students see their stories and perspectives represented in what they read, but also to open their minds to worlds and people outside of their own experiences.

Benchmark Education was also nominated in the Best Diversity and Inclusion Solution category for its multicultural elementary book series, Represent, and for its trade-book division, Reycraft Books.

The Excellence in Equity Awards program was created to acknowledge and celebrate high-impact work across K-12 education, as well as expand and enhance the discussion around educational equity. The awards are presented to companies, nonprofits, leaders, and educators whose work helps to ensure access and equity for every learner. More than 160 nominations were submitted from across the U.S., plus a number of submissions from abroad. The 2022 awards featured 30 winners selected in 16 industry categories and 21 winners in 10 categories dedicated to educators and schools.

“Educators and industry are on the same team, dedicated to the same mission of ensuring (more) 2 equitable opportunity for all learners. The overwhelming interest from all stakeholders in our inaugural awards program proves that sentiment to be true,” Ross Romano, program chair of the Excellence in Equity Awards and strategic advisor to the American Consortium for Equity in Education, said. “It’s my honor to announce the 2022 Excellence in Equity Award winners and spotlight the stories of these companies and leaders improving student and educator outcomes in schools everywhere.”

ABOUT BENCHMARK EDUCATION COMPANY

Benchmark Education Company (BEC) is a leading publisher of core, supplemental, and intervention literacy and language resources in English and Spanish, with valid and reliable digital assessments that inform instruction. BEC is also a provider of exceptional professional development to educators.

BEC is recognized as a responsive publisher that offers equally rigorous and engaging digital, print, and hybrid learning materials grounded in the Science of Reading research. BEC monitors research outcomes carefully to create effective foundational resources that include strong decoding materials with systematic and explicit instruction and high-quality resources focused on language development and comprehension. BEC’s content-rich and authentic texts offer instruction in close reading and analysis, multiple perspectives, and authentic literature while building world knowledge and reflecting the individuality of every student in each diverse classroom.

Family owned and operated for more than 25 years, BEC is committed to partnering with educators to provide the best for all students through resources of exceptional quality, worldclass professional learning, and effective and dedicated customer support.