PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 25 - Beyond Books™ proprietary educational programs (www.beyondbooks.com) have received the 2001 Diamond Award for General Interdisciplinary Curriculum Web Sites from Curriculum Administrator magazine. Curriculum Administrator's industry-wide competition recognizes exemplary web sites that provide curriculum applications for grades K-12.

Beyond Books is the creation of New Forum Publishers, Inc.™, a leading Internet-based provider of proprietary interactive educational content. The site, which offers comprehensive educational programs for middle and high school students, was chosen from among more than 700 K-12 curriculum-oriented sites reviewed by Curriculum Administrator's editors.

"The quality of Beyond Books original, comprehensive educational programs is impressive. Its programs parallel and expand on state and national curriculum standards, and are delivered to students in an advertising-free environment, which is a desirable and fairly unique situation," says Odvard Egil Dyrli, Senior Editor for Curriculum Administrator and Professor Emeritus, Curriculum and Instruction, University of Connecticut.

"No other site we reviewed offers students the opportunity to participate in live online discussions with experts from various subject areas and access reviewable archives of previous expert discussions," Dyrli adds. "The depth and breadth of information Beyond Books programs provide, for both teachers and students, is unparalleled. In addition to detailed course outlines for each program, Beyond Books provides many interactive features to stimulate student investigation, comprehensive teacher resource guides, plus many illustrations, maps and charts that can be downloaded for use in presentations and assignments."

In presenting the Diamond Award, Curriculum Administrator recognized Beyond Books' excellence in the following areas: appropriateness of educational content, instructional design, quality of interaction with the learner and the creative use of online technologies. All entries were evaluated during a period of several months; finalists were evaluated multiple times.

Currently, New Forum Publishers offers 16 Beyond Books programs in American and European History, Government, World Cultures, American and English Literature, Language Arts, Earth Science, Physical Science and Fine Arts. Plans are under way to expand Beyond Books' curriculum to more than 40 educational programs by the end of 2001. Accredited and experienced teachers create the site's original content, providing a foundation for inquiry, discovery, discussion and further exploration. Beyond Books programs have been piloted in more than 2,500 schools domestically and abroad.

In addition to its original content, Beyond Books offers students and teachers streamlined access to a wealth of course-relevant information on the Internet. New Forum Publishers' research staff combs the Internet for pictures, graphics and images to illustrate Beyond Books program content. The researchers review, rate and summarize the best sites on the Web and link them directly to the Beyond Books curricula, saving students (and teachers) hours of tedious search time.

"We are pleased to receive this tremendous acknowledgment of our original, interactive educational programs. The Diamond Award affirms our commitment to transform the way students learn in our nation's classrooms," says James Cassano, founder of Beyond Books, and President and Chief Executive Officer of New Forum Publishers, Inc. "Beyond Books provides the missing piece of the educational technology puzzle, supplying an innovative tool that enables our nation's schools to increase productivity, expand student opportunities and improve the quality of education."

Curriculum Administrator (circulation: 50,242) is a national educational trade publication of Educational Media, L.L.C., devoted to exploring educational curriculum trends, issues and resources for leaders in K-12 education.

New Forum Publishers, Inc., a privately held company based in Conshohocken, Pa., was founded in 1998 as a content originator and aggregator of online educational information. New Forum Publishers is dedicated to exploring the full potential of the Internet for educational uses, providing an advertising-free, content-rich, course-relevant resource for teachers and students. For more information, e-mail Cassano at jsc@newforum.com.