Press Releases

Myriad and Mass Insight Education Partner to Develop New, Ground-Breaking Web Site Aimed at Standards-Based Reform

Myriad builds searchable, online resource designed to help school and district leadership teams implement effective school improvement strategies

BOSTON, MA —July 23, 2002 — Myriad Inc., (http://www.myriadweb.com), an integrated strategy and design agency providing print and interactive media solutions, and Mass Insight Education, a Boston-based nonprofit organization working to improve student achievement in public schools, recently launched a ground-breaking website (http://www.buildingblocks.org) as part of the Building Blocks Initiative for Standards-Based Reform. The new website is a free online resource for educators including step-by-step blueprints of practical, field-tested school improvement strategies ("building blocks") derived from the work of successful schools as demonstrated by MCAS achievement scores and other measures.

The website, which is currently available in "preview" mode while the first year’s research is being posted, is organized around the four Building Blocks of standards-based reform: a higher standards for curriculum and culture; improving teaching practices focused on that curriculum; using data effectively to monitor progress and shape instruction; and interventions for students needing extra help.

Due to the large scale of documents, Myriad’s challenge in designing the site was to provide different types of users with access to different types of information in a quick, easy and user-friendly fashion. To achieve this, Myriad and Mass Insight Education collaborated to develop the Educators’ Blueprints, an online library that is being stocked with school-improvement strategies (more than 100 by this fall) that are searchable by specific criteria. Users can search the Blueprints by challenge, community type, school level, vanguard model, curriculum focus, and downloadable artifact. Additional navigation will enable users to search by audience type, including educator, parent, policymaker/board member, grantmaker/business partner or researcher/journalist.

The Mass Insight team can update the website independently using an easy-to-use, database-driven administrative interface, allowing the site to expand at their own pace. In addition to the website, Myriad created the Building Blocks identity and a printed brochure highlighting the several different dimensions of the Initiative. The brochure was mailed statewide in May 2002.

"Myriad was a good choice to implement the web presence for Building Blocks," said Andrew Calkins, Executive Director of Mass Insight Education. "We’re essentially inventing a new kind of online, effective-practice resource for educators, and the Myriad team has had the imagination and educational background necessary to pull off an extraordinary result."
"This project was special to Myriad because we could use our expertise to bring valuable benefits to schools, teachers and students — and advance the mission of a wonderful organization in the process," says Ted Groves, Principal, Myriad Inc.

"I think that Mass Insight Education is really on to something with its Building Blocks website and all of the tools on it," said Mike Cohen, former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education and a member of the Building Blocks Advisory Committee. "They have done a great job."

Over two years and with $500,000 in development funding, more than 200 Massachusetts educators helped Mass Insight Education create the new Building Blocks Initiative for Standards-Based Reform. The project has received so much positive notice that it will become replicated this year in other states, with assistance from Mass Insight Education. For more information on the Building Blocks Initiative for Standards-Based Reform and to view the newly launched website, visit http://www.buildingblocks.org.

About Mass Insight Education
Mass Insight Education is an independent, non-profit organization focused on improving student achievement in Massachusetts’ public schools. The group supports the implementation of the 1993 Education Reform Act through public outreach initiatives, school leadership training programs, effective-practice research and public opinion and policy reports.

About Myriad
Myriad Inc. is an integrated strategy and design agency providing award-winning print and interactive media solutions. Founded in 1994 by two designers with strong backgrounds in museum exhibit design, architecture, graphic design, and interface design, Myriad has created work for academic clients such as Harvard, MIT and the US Department of Education.

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© Myriad Inc., 2002. All rights reserved.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Myriad Contact:
Ted Groves, Principal
Myriad Inc.
T: 617-266-3332
E: theo@myriadweb.com

Mass Insight Contact:
Lisa Quackenbush, Director of Communications
Mass Insight Education
T: 617-722-4160
E: lquackenbush@massinsight.com