Press Release - June 21, 2004

Mississippi Department of Education Selects Vantage Learning To Deliver Statewide Student Progress Monitoring System

Assessments for Reading, Math, Writing, Science, and Social Studies Seen as Key to Drive Instructional Practices and Continuous School Improvement

Boston, MA, June 21, 2004 - Vantage Learning (www.vantagelearning.com) announced that the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) has selected Vantage to develop and deliver a statewide assessment and progress monitoring system for use by schools and districts throughout the state. The announcement was made from the floor of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) conference being held here in Boston, MA.

Subjects covered in the assessment tests include reading, math, writing, science, and social studies. The assessment system is fully customized for the MDE and is based on a number of core technologies developed by Vantage, including the Learning Access!™ suite for creating, administering, scoring, and reporting of assessment information, as well as the Vantage Learning Platform™ tools such as VANScan™, which provides instant access to test results for paper-and-pencil as well as online assessments. The writing portion of the new system will utilize the underlying IntelliMetric® essay-scoring engine. Intellimetric delivers instant feedback of open-ended essays using advanced artificial intelligence.

"We are excited to work with the MDE in this engagement," says Harry Barfoot, Vice President of Vantage Learning. "Our technology helps educators meet strict federal guidelines such as the 'No Child Left Behind Act' (NCLB). More importantly, the assessments support the strategic education goals of the MDE and the school districts that take advantage of this new system by strengthening the curriculum, assessment, and accountability framework and processes that will enable each student to achieve state and district standards and grade appropriate benchmarks. We're working hard to support State Superintendent Johnson and his team to enhance the educational experience for the students, parents, teachers, and administrators."

Timely and accurate assessment feedback is critical for schools within the state to support student achievement and progress. The Mississippi Student Progress Monitoring System will be a web-based system that indicates a student's mastery of key objectives. Through the disaggregation of state mandated and local assessment data, the education community can design optimal instructional strategies for each student. With over 30,000 assessment items, each aligned to the Mississippi state standards, the system will provide teachers a consistent tool across grade levels and immediate diagnostic feedback to prepare students for future educational success.

"Alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment are critical to our success. The Mississippi Student Progress Monitoring System will be a valuable tool in helping our schools bring instruction into better alignment and in meeting the educational needs of individual students," commented Dr. Henry L. Johnson, State Superintendent of Education. "All components of a school, including students, teachers, principals, superintendents, and school board members, are held accountable for student learning, and the new Mississippi Student Progress Monitoring System will facilitate the entire education community, better understanding the progress of all students in achieving our objectives."

For more information regarding Vantage Learning or their partnership with the Mississippi Department of Education, please contact Harry Barfoot at (215) 579-8390 or hbarfoot@vantage.com.

About Vantage Learning

Vantage Learning (www.vantagelearning.com), an affiliate of Vantage Laboratories and the leading provider of online assessment and automated essay scoring, developed IntelliMetric® to meet the needs of business, education, and government agencies needing a comprehensive Internet-based test authoring, delivery, scoring and reporting platform. IntelliMetric administers and scores responses to open-ended questions over the Internet using advanced artificial intelligence technology. An individual can enter a response to a question posed, submit the response, and receive an immediate score with feedback within seconds.

Eduventures recently selected Vantage Learning as one of the eight most innovative educational technology companies. Vantage provides services in all 50 states, including Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, Oregon and Texas. The company provides services to educational leaders, such as The College Board, ACT, Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB/McGraw Hill and Thomson Learning, as well as industry giants, such as Microsoft, Apple Computer, AOL and Sun Microsystems.