ThinkCERCA Named Finalist in 2015 ITA CityLIGHTS Awards

CHICAGO - Aug. 14, 2015 - PRLog -- ThinkCERCA, an online literacy platform designed to empower teachers to personalize literacy instruction across disciplines, has been selected as a finalist for Illinois Technology Association’s 2015 ITA CityLIGHTS Outstanding Technology Development Award. This nomination recognizes ThinkCERCA’s commitment to using technology to help teachers spark critical thinking and writing in the classroom.

Founded by Eileen Murphy Buckley and Abby Ross in 2012, ThinkCERCA has spent the last three years helping teachers deliver effective literacy instruction across disciplines. Its approach, grounded in over 30 years of University of Chicago research, has proven to increase student growth in reading, writing and critical thinking skills. In one school, using ThinkCERCA to focus on close reading and argumentative writing improved eighth grade reading scores by 46 percentiles in one year. The Outstanding Technology Development Award, which recognizes companies and organizations who develop a technology tool, process or service that made a substantial improvement on business metrics, honors ThinkCERCA’s application of practical technology in the classroom.

A panel of accomplished judges, consisting of elite innovators in Illinois technology, reviewed nominations to select the finalists. This year’s judges hail from major organizations including Google, Optiver, Sprout Social, Groupon and World Business Chicago, among others.

“We are honored that the judges of the 16th Annual ITA CityLIGHTS Awards have recognized our innovation and achievements by selecting us as a finalist for this year’s program,” said Eileen Murphy, CEO and founder of ThinkCERCA. “We’re in good company among this group of finalists, and we look forward to connecting with our peers and fellow nominees at the September 17 event.”

“Our CityLIGHTS Awards is all about showcasing great companies and individuals doing extraordinary things,” said ITA CEO Fred Hoch. “Having ThinkCERCA in this year’s finalists’ pool proves just that.”

The public can contribute to the selection of this year’s winners by voting from August 10 through August 28 at itacitylights.com (https://www.illinoistech.org/citylights?utm_source=press_...). Winners will be determined by composite score (50 percent judges; 50 percent community voting) in all categories except the CityLIGHTS Award, which is determined solely by the ITA Board of Directors. The winners for each of the eight categories will be announced at the ITA CityLIGHTS Awards (https://www.illinoistech.org/citylights?utm_source=press_release&utm_medium=finalist_template&utm_campaign=ita_citylights) event on Thursday, September 17 at Morgan Manufacturing in Chicago.