PATTISON, Texas, April 1, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Spring is a busy time for Texas schools due to the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) testing but Dr. Laurie Bauer of Royal Independent School District (ISD) is confident that her district's students are well prepared. Dr. Bauer, director of curriculum for the district, and the district's teachers rely on an online assessment tool called Performance Series to give them critical information about their students' achievement in the months preceding the TAKS.
"There is a lot of pressure on our teachers during these spring months because the TAKS and the other high-stakes tests carry such weight," said Bauer. "I consider it my responsibility to give these teachers the best tools available to prep their students to do their very best."
Dr. Bauer is referring to an adaptive web-based testing tool from Scantron called Performance Series. "Performance Series is one of those tools I rely on to give teachers important information about their student's understanding of mathematics, language arts, science and reading," said Bauer.
Performance Series is an online test that measures a student's grade-level proficiency in reading, mathematics, language arts and science. And, like many districts across the country, Royal ISD purchased Performance Series to help make informed decisions about instruction so that teachers would know exactly which areas of the curriculum students were missing and then adapt their curriculum to fill in the gaps.
Because of its adaptive abilities, Performance Series actually diagnoses learning gaps and establishes grade-level proficiency because it learns from each student's response and gives progressively more difficult questions to the student until it determines the proficiency level in the subject area. Conversely, if answers are being missed, Performance Series pinpoints the type of errors and gives different questions to the student to diagnose exactly what they do not understand.
"Performance Series is valuable for educators because it allows teachers to quickly pinpoint the true proficiency level of any student," said Tim Loomer, president of Scantron's Testing and Assessment Division. "Royal ISD is a prime example of how the information generated by formative assessments can be used to substantially boost the performance of large groups of students."
Royal ISD students take a "benchmark" test beginning in August, giving the teachers immediate feedback about their students. With these results, they make slight adjustments to their curriculum using Performance Series Suggested Learning Objectives (SLO), which are aligned to the state curriculum objective codes. This way instruction is individualized for groups of students or for individuals, giving them the best chance to be successful in the classroom and on the state assessments.
"When we equip teachers with this knowledge, they can then go back into their curriculum to find the specific lessons needed for each student. This is how we have managed to show growth in every school and every sub-group each year we have used Performance Series," said Bauer.
Royal ISD students will be tested in writing, mathematics and reading throughout the months of February, March and April. The preliminary results from the 2004 TAKS are already looking promising. The district will release the final TAKS scores in May 2005.
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About Royal Independent School District
The Royal Independent School District (www.royal.isd.esc4.net) is located in southern Waller County and serves the communities of Brookshire, Pattison, Sunnyside, and the surrounding areas. The District serves a total student population of 1,750 students from pre-kindergarten through the twelfth grade.
About Scantron Corporation
Scantron Corporation (www.scantron.com) is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based John H. Harland Company (NYSE:JH). Scantron is a leading provider of software services and systems for the collection, management and interpretation of data to the educational, financial and commercial markets. The company has approximately 600 employees worldwide and annual revenues exceeding $110 million.
About Harland
Atlanta-based John H. Harland Company (NYSE:JH) (www.harland.net) is a leading provider of software and printed products to the financial and educational markets. Harland Financial Solutions, Inc. (www.harlandfinancialsolutions.com), a wholly-owned subsidiary, supplies software and services, including customer relationship management, deposit and loan origination, core systems and mortgage services, to thousands of financial institutions of all sizes. Harland's printed products offerings include checks, direct marketing and financial forms.
This press release contains statements, which may constitute "forward-looking statements." These statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of John H. Harland Company and members of its respective management, as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Reference is made to the Risk Factors and Cautionary Statements in Harland's Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filed under the Securities Exchange Act.