McGraw-Hill's Yearly ProgressPro™ Meets All Criteria of National Center on Student Progress Monitoring

McGraw-Hill Digital Learning's innovative online student progress monitoring system, Yearly ProgressPro™, has been identified as meeting all criteria for effective progress monitoring by the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring (NCSPM). NCSPM is a national nonprofit organization funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs. NCSPM promotes awareness of progress monitoring and provides technical assistance to states and districts seeking to implement progress-monitoring systems.

Yearly ProgressPro™ was one of only two programs rated as "demonstrating sufficient evidence" in all seven categories identified by NCSPM, which included:

   * Number of alternative forms
   * Rates of improvement specified
   * Benchmarks for adequate end-of-year performance or goal setting
     specified
   * Improved student learning or teacher planning
   * Sensitivity to student improvement
   * Reliability
   * Validity

"The NCSPM evaluation provides a strong endorsement of Yearly ProgressPro™ and the research behind the program," said McGraw-Hill Digital Learning editorial director Steve Majchrzak. "Its stamp of approval demonstrates that Yearly ProgressPro™ is not simply another technology- based assessment engine, but truly a research-based assessment methodology that works."

Both Yearly ProgressPro™ Math and Yearly ProgressPro™ Reading fully meet NCSPM's criteria in all categories. Through weekly 15-minute tests, Yearly ProgressPro™ is able to evaluate student progress and prescribe specific instruction for individual students. Teachers can monitor progress through a series of scientifically designed weekly assessments or they create their own tests using an item bank with 37,000 problems.

Problems in the test pool have been developed and reviewed by university researchers, curriculum and assessment experts and teachers for content quality and validity. In addition, the program includes nearly 900 tutorial exercises that can be prescribed automatically to meet each student's individual learning needs. By combining ongoing progress monitoring with individualized instruction, Yearly ProgressPro™ gives teachers important tools to help every child succeed. Yearly ProgressPro™ Math, recently named a finalist in the distinguished Software & Information Industry Association's Codie Awards program, is available for Grades 1-8, Algebra and Geometry. Yearly ProgressPro™ for Reading/Language Arts is in the final stages of beta testing and will be available for sale in the summer of 2005.

Nationally, the need for technology-based data systems to track and improve student performance has been highlighted by the U.S. Department of Education in its 2005 National Education Technology Plan, as well as by First Lady Laura Bush during a speech at the National School Boards Association 64th Annual Conference.

Mrs. Bush said, "Testing enables teachers, parents and school board members to learn how students are performing, so they can celebrate a child's success and address their challenges. Teachers at Stansbury Elementary in Utah are using [Yearly ProgressPro™] to routinely check student progress on the year's curriculum. They can now track a child's progress from their first day of school to their last. And teachers can tailor their lesson plans to better meet their students' needs."

About the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs funds the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring to meet the challenges of implementing effective progress monitoring. Housed at the American Institutes for Research, NCSPM is a national technical assistance and dissemination center dedicated to the implementation of scientifically based student progress monitoring. For more information, visit http://www.studentprogress.org/ .

About Yearly ProgressPro™

Launched in 2003 by McGraw-Hill Digital Learning, Yearly ProgressPro™ is an online progress monitoring system built on 25 years of research in the scientific methodology of Curriculum-Based Measurement, which has been proven to be a highly effective method for improving student learning outcomes. Yearly ProgressPro™ helps administrators and teachers track progress towards districts' Adequate Yearly Progress goals, a key component of No Child Left Behind. For more information, visit http://www.mhdigitallearning.com/ and click "Product Tour" or call 1-800-848-1567, ext. 4424.

About McGraw-Hill Digital Learning

McGraw-Hill Digital Learning provides research-based, standards-aligned solutions that integrate diagnostics, prescriptive content, and reporting to improve instruction and raise student performance. It is a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, a leading global provider of electronic and print products that enhance teaching and learning in the pre-K through 12th grade, higher education and professional markets. It is a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), a global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's and BusinessWeek. Founded in 1888, the Corporation has more than 280 offices in 37 countries. Sales in 2004 were $5.3 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mheducation.com/

SOURCE: McGraw-Hill Education

CONTACT: April Hattori
McGraw-Hill Education
(212) 904-2078
april_hattori@mcgraw-hill.com
Tom Stanton
McGraw-Hill Education
(212) 904-3214
tom_stanton@mcgraw-hill.com

Web site: http://www.mheducation.com/
http://www.mhdigitallearning.com/
http://www.studentprogress.org/