Press Release - November 21, 2005

Oakland Middle School Students Rise to Writing Challenge with Vantage's MY Access! Learning Tool

Edna Brewer Middle School transforms student writing skills with Vantage Learning's online writing tool

Oakland, Calif., November 21, 2005 - Students at Edna Brewer Middle School have vastly improved their writing skills and have the scores to prove it. The school, part of the Oakland Unified School District, wanted to improve student writing skills for the statewide STAR assessment tests and provide students in a low income area access to computers and the Internet, technology that is important for student success. The solution: a pilot program combining Vantage Learning's MY Access! online writing tool with shared Apple iBooks. The result: unprecedented increases in students' essay content and enthusiasm for language arts in just four months.

MY Access! is Vantage Learning's award-winning Web-based writing environment that builds better writers by instantly scoring student essays, and providing immediate remedial instruction that engages and motivates students. It is based on Vantage Learning's IntelliMetric® engine, which uses a rich blend of artificial intelligence (AI) and the virtualization of human expertise to accurately assess a student's competency and progress in reading, writing, science, and social studies. In fact, MY Access! scores are consistently more accurate than human expert scorers.

Edna Brewer Middle School brought in 25 Apple iBooks and 170 MY Access! licenses to use in their Language Arts classrooms. The Apple iBooks were shared among students using 25 mobile carts rolled from classroom to classroom. As a result, teachers were able to quickly incorporate MY Access! into their curriculum, resulting in:

• An increase in the average MY Access! score from a 3 to a 4 over a period of four months. MY Access! scores essays on a 6-point scale. Over the same time period, there was a 14 percent decrease in scores of 1 and 2 by the last revision, and a 17 percent increase in scores of 5 and 6.
• A decrease in the number of students deemed 'at risk' for writing proficiency. Before using MY Access!, 55 percent of students were in this category, compared to 37 percent after four months of MY Access! use.
• An overall increase in students' writing levels. The number of students classified as "Mastery"-the highest ranking on MY Access!-increased from 3 percent to 9 percent over four months. The number of students classified as "Proficient" increased from 42 percent to 54 percent.

"MY Access! makes students feel more confident about writing and turning in their final paper," says Jamie Marantz, Principal of Edna Brewer Middle School. "The program creates a feeling of responsibility and accountability among students. They are motivated by the instant feedback, and empowered by the self-assessments. Sharing MY Access! among all the students by using only 25 Apple iBooks worked wonderfully to help us lower the technological costs, without compromising the technological benefits."

Indeed, the school's faculty is so enthusiastic about the pilot program's results, they've ordered an additional 230 licenses, and are encouraging other schools in the district to adopt the technology. MY Access! is already flourishing in schools throughout Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, and San Jose.

"MY Access! shines in challenging environments," says Harry Barfoot, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Vantage Learning. "In situations with limited resources and over-populated classes, teachers don't have the time to grade 30 essays, let alone two or three revisions of the same assignment. Edna Brewer Middle School is a perfect example of how students can truly succeed and reach their fullest potential when given the right resources."

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.

Eduventures has selected Vantage Learning as one of the eight most innovative educational technology companies. MY Access!, Vantage's instructional writing program that utilizes IntelliMetric essay-scoring, earned a 2003 District Administration Top 100 Award and was included in Technology and Learning Magazine's Top 10 Smart Technologies for Schools. A Codie Awards finalist three years in a row, MY Access! recently won the 2005 Codie Award in two categories, "Best Secondary Education Instructional Solution: Language Arts/English" and "Best Instructional Solution for English Language Learners". In addition, MY Access! was awarded the 2004 Award of Excellence from Technology and Learning Magazine.

Vantage Learning provides services in all 50 states directly to end-user clients and provides services to educational leaders such as The College Board, ACT, Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB/McGraw Hill and Thomson Learning.