Press Release - December 6, 2004
Vantage Learning Expands MY Access!™ Writing Skills Development Software to Target College Readiness
Leading writing assessment and instruction software firm expands its revolutionary writing software to help students prepare for college admissions tests and to complete college applications
Newtown, PA, December 6, 2004 - Vantage Learning (www.vantagelearning.com) today announced that it has released an expanded version of its award-winning MY Access!™ application to target college readiness. MY Access! now offers students the opportunity to hone their writing skills to prepare for the writing component of college admissions tests, writing college admissions essays, and other critical skills that are important for students planning for college.The MY Access! application, used by hundreds of thousands of students across the United States and Asia, provides students with the opportunity to practice their writing, receive immediate feedback and manage their writing portfolio. This release furthers Vantage's leadership in the educational market for automated essay scoring and instructional writing programs.
Expanding MY Access! to include college readiness comes in response to calls by several national groups such as the National Writing Commission for greater emphasis on the improvement of student writing skills.
"Over the past several years, we have seen a growing recognition of the importance of writing for both academic and later life success," said Harry Barfoot, VP of Sales of Marketing of Vantage Learning. "Greater emphasis on the college application essay and the recent expansion of college admissions tests to include an essay component have led to a renewed interest in writing skills development for college writing."
The expansion is the culmination of several years of research and development at Vantage exploring college writing skills.
"The demands of college-level writing are more complex than those typically required of middle and high school students," said Cathy Mikulas, Director of Test Development at Vantage Learning. "The college readiness component of MY Access! reflects a broader range of writing including critical thinking and analysis skills."
MY Access! has been recognized by industry leading organizations as being one of the "breakthrough technologies" in education. Recently, MY Access! was awarded one of Technology and Learning Magazine's prestigious Awards of Excellence in the Language Arts category. "Our judges chose MY Access! since the program offers excellent writing activities, a friendly interface, and individual writing feedback," said Susan McLester, Editor-in-Chief of Technology & Learning. "Our judges believe MY Access! is a great English Language Learners tool that could be considered 'best of breed'."
About MY Access!
MY Access!™ is a web-based assessment and diagnostic writing environment that scores student essays instantly and provides individualized instruction that engages and motivates students to improve their writing proficiency. The robust online reporting feature provide up-to-the-minute student performance data, enabling teachers to make timely, data-driven decisions for successful differentiated instruction. MY Access! analyzes more than 300 semantic, syntactic and discourse characteristics and provides a holistic score as well as domain scores for five major areas: focus and meaning, organization, content and development, language use and style, and mechanics and conventions.
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 (AI) technology. An individual can enter a response to a question posed, submit the response, and receive an immediate score with feedback within seconds.
Most recently, Vantage Learning's MY Access! won an Award of Excellence from Technology and Learning Magazine, and Eduventures selected Vantage Learning as one of the eight most innovative educational technology companies. In addition, MY Access! earned a 2003 District Administration Top 100 Award, was included in Technology and Learning Magazine's Top 10 Smart Technologies for Schools, and is a Codie Awards finalist 2 years in a row. Vantage Learning provides services in all 50 states including Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, Oregon, and Texas and provides services to educational leaders such as The College Board, ACT, Harcourt Assessment, Inc., CTB/McGraw Hill and Thomson Learning, and industry giants such as Microsoft, Apple Computer, AOL, and Sun Microsystems.