Press Release - May 26, 2005

Vantage Learning's MY Access!™ Chosen as Winner of Two Codie Awards

MY Access! is selected as "Best Secondary Education Instructional Tool" and "Best English Language Learning Instructional Solution" at the 2005 Annual Codie Awards

Newtown, PA, May 26, 2005 - Vantage Learning (www.VantageLearning.com), the world's leading provider of online assessment tools, announced that the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has chosen Vantage Learning's 'MY Access!™' as the winner in two categories at the annual Codie Awards, "Best Secondary Education Instructional Tool" and "Best English Language Learning Instructional Solution". The Codie Awards showcase the industry's finest products and services, celebrate outstanding achievement and vision, and provide the only peer recognition program of its kind.

MY Access! 5.0 is an online, portfolio-based writing instruction program that allows students and teachers to track student writing progress over time. Using MY Access!, students can write, review, and revise their work, as well as receive diagnostic feedback on several important writing dimensions, from organization to mechanics. Teachers can then review students' work and provide additional feedback.

The "Best Secondary Education Instructional Solution: Language Arts/English Award" recognizes the best school-based education technology solution for language arts and English curriculum or content for students in grades 7-12. The award for the "Best Instructional Solution for English Language Learners" highlights the best product specifically designed to benefit students with limited English proficiency or students studying English as a Second Language (ESL).

"The 20th Annual Codie Awards continues a tradition of honoring the best software, content, and education technology industries," says Ken Wasch, SIIA President. "When one considers the number of outstanding companies that competed this year, being named a Codie Award winner is a significant achievement."

Version 5.0 of MY Access! includes customization features that allow educators to align assessments with individual state rubrics, and tailor the teaching and learning environments to meet the specific needs of their students. Administrators can review students' essays using a reporting engine that enables reviewers to drill down into areas of strengths and weakness by domain, such as organization or mechanics.

"Vantage Learning is thrilled to be the only writing assessment program nominated by SIIA for two prestigious Codie Awards, and to be the winner of both," says Harry Barfoot, VP of Sales of Marketing of Vantage Learning. "MY Access! is a powerful assessment tool for writing but its strength lies in the instructional support provided by the software. It's as if each student has a writing coach or tutor looking over their shoulder in the classroom, helping them achieve proficiency. Students can write and revise often, giving teachers thousands of writing samples that are graded instantly with a level of accuracy that equals and often surpasses expert humans. And with feedback in languages other than English, we can provide support for all students. We look forward to continuing to deliver the industry's best online writing solutions that are research based, classroom proven, and set industry standards for scoring accuracy."

MY Access! is based on Vantage Learning's IntelliMetric® engine, which uses a rich blend of artificial intelligence and expert knowledge to accurately assess students' competency and progress in subjects ranging from reading and writing to science and social studies. In MY Access! 5.0, the IntelliMetric engine has been enhanced with 'adaptive response technology' that differentiates feedback provided to students based on their writing and native language. IntelliMetric is also now capable of scoring essays with accurate feedback in over 20 languages. Through significant investment and sound research practices, IntelliMetric has been recognized by industry leaders as the most accurate scoring engine to automatically grade open-ended responses.

The 20th Annual Codie Awards Gala were held on May 25, 2005 at Universal Studio's Globe Theater in Universal City, California during the SIIA 2005 Annual Conference. For more information on the Codie Awards, please visit http://www.siia.net/codies/2005.

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 provides 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.

A Codie Awards finalist three years in a row, MY Access! recently won the 2005 Codie Award in two categories, "Best Secondary Education Instructional Tool" and "Best English Language Learning Instructional Solution". In addition, MY Access! was awarded the 2004 Award of Excellence from Technology and Learning Magazine and was included in Technology and Learning Magazine's Top 10 Smart Technologies for Schools in 2002.

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. Vantage Learning provides services in all 50 states including Pennsylvania, Mississippi, 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.