IOWA CITY, IOWA, Oct. 4, 2006-- Pearson Educational Measurement today was awarded a contract by the Illinois State Board of Education to provide administrative services for the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) beginning in spring 2007. The initial term of agreement between ISBE and PEM is through September 2009 for a maximum amount of $32.9 million.

In a special meeting Wednesday, the board unanimously voted to award the contract to PEM for services connected with the ISAT, including test printing, distribution and retrieval; providing raw scores from multiple choice and open response test items for final scoring; providing online services for review of demographic data and score review; preparing printed reports of assessment results for students and schools; and, providing data disks of report results to school districts.

The ISAT measures individual student achievement relative to the Illinois Learning Standards. The results give parents, teachers, and schools one measure of student learning and school performance.

"We're delighted to be working with Illinois again. We were involved with the state's first statewide assessment in 1988, and we have worked with Illinois schools for over fifty years," said Douglas Kubach, president and CEO of Pearson Educational Measurement. "We're looking forward to applying our resources and quality processes to the ISAT in 2007 and beyond."

Pearson Educational Measurement has a proven track record for delivering large-scale assessment programs for more than 20 states and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam. PEM’s people, processes and systems operate under a comprehensive quality management framework recognized by external, third-party certifications. PEM’s scoring centers and printing facilities are certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), its software development follows the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and its program managers are certified by the Program Management Institute (PMI).

About Pearson Educational Measurement
Pearson Educational Measurement, the largest provider of educational assessment products, services and solutions, helps states and large school districts meet the requirements of education reform while using testing and assessment to promote learning. As a pioneer, PEM has been a trusted partner in district, state and national assessments for more than 50 years.

PEM’s full-service offerings for K-12 and other assessment organizations include PEMSolutions? (Pearson Educational Measurement Solutions) for custom assessments, both online and on paper; PASeries? (Progress Assessment Series) for formative assessments; Perspective? for performance reporting; and a wide range of data warehousing and other educational assessment products and services.

Pearson Educational Measurement operates as a business of Pearson Education, the world’s largest education company, which in turn is a part of Pearson (NYSE: PSO; LSE: PSON), the international media company. Pearson’s other primary operations include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.

For more information, visit the website at www.pearsonedmeasurement.com.

Contact:
David Hakensen
(952) 681-3040
David.Hakensen@pearson.com