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Pearson Scott Foresman's-Reading Street First Program Aligned To The Scientific Research Required By NCLB

Glenview, IL. April 27, 2006 -- Pearson Scott Foresman's Reading Street is the first reading program to be aligned with the scientific basis for reading required by the No Child Left Behind Act, demonstrated through numerous research studies currently underway or recently completed.

Created by nationally recognized experts, and solidly anchored in the most current scientific research, Reading Street is designed to help teachers build readers through motivating and engaging literature, scientifically research-based instruction, and a wealth of reliable teaching tools for instruction, pacing, assessments, and grouping. Reading Street includes fiction, expository articles, biographies, poems, and online reading, all focused on enhancing student performance and meeting mandated Adequate Yearly Progress.

The research group Gatti Evaluation, The Wisconsin Center for Educational Research, and Pearson Scott Foresman earlier this year announced findings of an independent study showing that 98 percent of Reading Street benchmark assessments aligned above the median for recently-aligned state assessments to standards. The study aligned the benchmark items to state standards in ten states using Reading Street: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee and Washington. The research clearly showed content alignment and coverage well above that achieved by the state standardized assessments in most of the ten states. The study report can be read online at http://www.scottforesman.com/readingstreetbivs.

An additional study is currently underway to align benchmark assessments to state standards in an additional eleven states: Louisiana, Michigan, West Virginia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, Illinois, Oregon, and Oklahoma. Results will be available in June 2006. Gatti Evaluation is also collecting student data on the benchmark, baseline, and end-of-year benchmark assessments to provide evidence of validity and reliability. The results of this study will be available in July 2006.

Magnolia Consulting is conducting an efficacy study of the program in the first, second, and third grades across six different U.S. geographic regions. The study is evaluating teachers' implementation of Reading Street and assessing the effectiveness of the materials in helping students to attain critical reading skills. These results are scheduled to be available in Sept. 2007.

"Scientific evidence of our programs' effectiveness is vital to our business, and the facts show that educators are achieving great success with Reading Street," said Paul McFall, President, Pearson Scott Foresman. "With this program, and all of our products, teachers can focus on what they do best - teach - and know that the material has been designed and proven to help students achieve academic success."

About Pearson Scott Foresman

The world's leading elementary educational publisher of scientifically research-based instructional materials, assessment tools, digital media, and professional development. Pearson Scott Foresman is part of Pearson Education, the world's leading educational publisher and a business of Pearson, the international media company (NYSE: PSO).