Edusoft

One In Four California Students Benefits from Edusoft's Web-Based
Assessment Platform

Edusoft Adds 78 California School Districts This Year to Customer Roster; Helps California School Districts Deliver Individualized Instruction

San Francisco, Calif. - August 10, 2004 - Edusoft®, a division of Houghton Mifflin Assessment Group, today announced that one in four of the more than six million California students is currently registered on the company's standards-based assessment platform. In the first half of 2004, 78 California school districts became Edusoft customers - including San Jose, Morongo and Yuba City - joining the more than 250 California school districts that use Edusoft to manage, organize and analyze student data to help them reach their goals and improve student performance.

"I've been in education for 16 years and without reservation I can say that Edusoft is the single most powerful tool for school improvement that I have come across," said Rosalind Morris, reading facilitator of Hayfork Elementary School in Trinity County, California. "Edusoft's assessment platform has changed the way educators reflect on, plan for, and respond to the needs of students today."

"No Child Left Behind and high stakes tests are creating myriad new challenges for teachers," said Jay Kimmelman, president and co-founder of Edusoft. "Edusoft's technology takes current classroom conditions into account and provides teachers with a realistic solution to view assessment and leverage data for individualized instruction. Because of this, more schools are turning to our unique paper-to-Web solution to help teachers improve student achievement by connecting performance data directly to daily instruction."

Widespread adoption coupled with the company's 99.5% customer renewal rate is a testament to the value that Edusoft's assessment platform provides district administrators, teachers and students. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest district in the U.S., has been an Edusoft customer for more than a year.

In addition to Morongo, San Jose and Yuba City, other customers who have chosen Edusoft as their assessment platform in 2004 include Barstow Unified, Chualar Union Elementary, Delano Union Elementary, El Monte Union High School, Enterprise Elementary School District, Fallbrook Union, Galt Joint Union Elementary School District, Hope Elementary, Le Grand Union High School District, Planada Elementary, Wasco Union School District and Vista Unified.

About Edusoft
Edusoft offers the only proven standards-based assessment platform to enable public schools immediate access to online student performance results and customized instructional tools based on the automatic scoring of plain paper answer sheets. Edusoft, a division of Houghton Mifflin Assessment Group, is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Additional information on Edusoft and its products can be obtained at 866-4-EDUSOFT or www.edusoft.com.

About Houghton Mifflin Assessment Group
Since 1916, Houghton Mifflin has been one of the world's most trusted providers of standardized tests and assessments. Today, the Houghton Mifflin Assessment Group publishes a broad array of K-12 educational, clinical, and professional tests through the Company's three assessment divisions: Riverside Publishing, Edusoft, and Promissor. Trusted brands such as Stanford-Binet, Woodcock-Johnson and Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, along with the sophisticated technology platforms of Edusoft and Promissor, position Houghton Mifflin Assessment Group to meet the dynamic assessment needs of today's educational and professional markets.

About Houghton Mifflin
Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Company is one of the leading educational publishers in the United States, with over $1 billion in sales. Houghton Mifflin publishes textbooks, instructional technology, assessments and other educational materials for elementary and secondary schools and colleges. The Company also publishes an extensive line of reference works and award-winning fiction and non-fiction for adults and young readers. Additionally, Houghton Mifflin offers computer-administered testing programs and services for the professional and certification markets. With its origins dating back to 1832, Houghton Mifflin combines its tradition of excellence with a commitment to innovation. The Company's Web site can be found at www.hmco.com.

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