Contact: Jason Baran | (609) 683-2428 | jbaran@ets.org

ETS and SchoolCity Join Forces to Deliver
Integrated Instructional Improvement Systems to K-12 School Districts

Strategic Alliance another Step toward Closing the Student Achievement Gap

Princeton, N.J. (June 8, 2009) - SchoolCity Inc., a leader in designing and delivering solutions to the K-12 market since 1999, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Educational Testing Service (ETS) to distribute ETS® item banks. The agreement blends the core competencies of each organization - data analysis, reporting and unparalleled assessment development - to deliver a unique channel for analyzing multiple areas of a school district.

Under the terms of the multiyear agreement, SchoolCity will license and distribute the ETS item banks in conjunction with their STARS™ Assessment, Analysis and Reporting Suite.

"SchoolCity's educational solutions are targeted at school districts interested in leveraging technology and data-driven decision making to improve student achievement," Vaseem Anjum, SchoolCity president and CEO explains. "Our work with ETS allows us to combine our proven analysis and reporting with high-quality, researched-based assessment items."

The ETS item banks measure reading, mathematics, science and writing skills aligned to specific state standards measured by state summative tests. Thousands of high-quality items were carefully created by ETS using a rigorous item development process, and the items can be combined into benchmark or formative assessments to help educators understand and monitor student progress toward mastering state standards.

By providing ETS test items within the context of SchoolCity's assessment, analysis and reporting suite, SchoolCity will further help educators raise the level of student achievement.

SchoolCity's capabilities include:

• automating the data collection process, extracting demographic, roster and staff information on a nightly basis.
• loading and updating state assessment results.
• multiple assessment delivery methods including plain-paper scanning and computer-based/online delivery.
• user-based dashboards, providing teachers, site and district administrators with critical information, just-in-time to make decisions.
• robust reporting and query tools to allow for data-based decision making.

"Our core competency is in item and test development, so a strategic relationship with SchoolCity offers K-12 school districts a complete assessment and reporting platform plus our research-based products and services," explains Robert Block, ETS Associate Vice President for Business Development. "SchoolCity's STARS Suite combined with ETS's item banks will help educators to develop and administer quality, customized assessments."


About ETS

At nonprofit ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English-language learning, and elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, as well as conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually - including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® test and The Praxis Series™ assessments - in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org.


About SchoolCity Inc.

Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., SchoolCity Inc. is a leading provider of continuous improvement, assessment and analysis software to the K-12 education market. SchoolCity's comprehensive STARS™ Suite combines continuous improvement planning, curriculum management, formative assessment, item banks, accountability, analysis and reporting solutions; all in one integrated, easy-to-use application. Since 1999, SchoolCity's solutions have been helping educators across the United States to make better decisions, dramatically improving instruction and student achievement. www.schoolcity.com.