Pacific Resources for Education and Learning’s (PREL’s) Pacific Early Readers Website has received a 2007 Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) Distinguished Achievement Award in the category of Curriculum, World Language Instruction Websites. The AEP’s Distinguished Achievement Awards recognize the year’s most outstanding materials in the field of teaching and learning. A list of winners is available at www.aepweb.org/awards/winners.htm
The Pacific Language Early Readers include 10 stories appropriate for young pre-K to 3rd grade readers in English and nine Pacific languages: Carolinian, Chamorro, Chuukese, Kosraean, Marshallese, Palauan, Pohnpeian, Samoan, and Yapese. The stories are richly illustrated and focus on themes familiar to Pacific island children. The website also includes audio recordings of the stories in most of the languages.
This is the fourth AEP Distinguished Achievement Award PREL has received. Previous awards were for the NEARStar program (in 2004 and 2005) and for the Island Alphabet Books (in 2005). The awards honor the top products within the categories of Curriculum, Periodicals, and Professional Development. Entrants are evaluated on traits such as efficacy, usability, and overall educational value and judged by an expert panel of educators, editors, designers, and technology specialists.
PREL is an independent, nonprofit 501 (c)(3) corporation that works in partnership with the Pacific educational community to provide quality programs and products developed to promote educational excellence, including professional development and educational materials. In addition, PREL administers the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Pacific, 1 of 10 Regional Educational Laboratories funded through the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. With a commitment to ensuring that all students have an equal opportunity to develop a strong academic foundation, regardless of circumstances or geographic location, PREL serves the U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands, including American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) (Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap), Guam, Hawai‘i, the Republic of Palau, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI).
For additional information about this media release or PREL and its work please contact Jackie Burniske, Executive Director, Center for Information, Communications, and Technology by telephone at (808) 441-1300 or by email at burniskj@prel.org.
(Posted Tuesday, April 29, 2008)