Scottsdale, AZ - Nov. 16, 2005 --Pearson Digital Learning, the leader in proven, comprehensive technologies for preK-12 education, today announces an expanded version of its High Stakes Management™ solution, a set of sophisticated tools and services that help districts and schools forecast and manage student performance on high stakes tests from the district level to the individual student level.

The High Stakes Management suite is based on research that has established a quantifiable relationship between students' performance in Pearson Digital Learning's SuccessMaker® Enterprise courseware and their performance on standardized tests and state assessments. The program, which was launched in 2001 and used primarily by large school districts, has been enhanced with new capabilities and efficiencies to provide an effective solution for districts and schools of all sizes.

Since its inception, High Stakes Management has empowered districts to set courseware target levels for specific test achievement and with a high degree of reliability, forecast student performance, by grade level, on their next high stakes test. Building on these capabilities, the newly expanded program allows educators to predict student performance on high stakes tests at the individual student and subgroup levels as well. The program also provides tools and services to help schools design intervention strategies for individual students prior to the test to help them reach their highest potential.

Each High Stakes Management implementation includes a customized program plan with courseware targets, implementation strategies and implementation milestones; a school action plan with usage goals and benchmarks; an interim review and progress report; and a time-of-test review and progress report. High Stakes Management offers high stakes test correlations for all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

National School District in California, for example, implements High Stakes Management in all 10 of its elementary schools to help improve achievement on the California Standards Test (CST) for students in grades two through six. Located in National City, just south of San Diego and 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, the district enrolls 6,700 students, 100 percent of whom receive free/reduced price lunches. Since beginning its High Stakes Management program in 2003-04, the percentage of students scoring at or above proficient on the CST in mathematics and English language arts has steadily increased. In addition, the district achieved adequate yearly progress in math and English language arts, and met its California Academic Performance Index (API) growth target in 2004-05.

According to Chris Oram, Ed.D., director of instructional technology and student assessment for National School District, the High Stakes Management program plays a key role in the district's accountability system, which uses data from multiple measures to assess student progress in mathematics and reading/English language arts.

"We implemented High Stakes Management to help us meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind and help all our students achieve proficiency goals in math and reading," said Dr. Oram. "A key benefit of High Stakes Management is that it allows our principals and teachers to use SuccessMaker data throughout the school year to monitor student performance and determine if students are on target to achieve their goals on the California Standards Test - so they don't have to wait until the end of the year and hope. It gives them the tools they need to see how their students are doing today so they can make decisions, plan instruction and focus interventions to improve learning and raise achievement."

About Pearson Digital Learning

At Pearson Digital Learning our mission is to provide innovative, research-based digital learning solutions that elevate the art and science of teaching, and inspire children to reach their greatest potential. Reaching more than 20 million students annually, our products include: the SuccessMaker® Enterprise and NovaNET® educational courseware; and the KnowledgeBox® digital learning system. Pearson Digital Learning is also the exclusive distributor for the Waterford Early Reading Program™ and Waterford Early Math & Science™, adaptive computer-based instruction developed by the Waterford Institute.

Pearson Digital Learning is part of Pearson Education the world's leading integrated education company, which in turn is part of Pearson (NYSE: PSO) the international media company. More information can be found at: http://www.PearsonDigital.com

Contact:
Leslie Eicher, APR
314-965-1776
or
Leslie@EicherCommunications.com