Edutest.com Offers California Teachers Immediate Student Assessment and Results at No Charge

Business Wire, Sept 7, 1999

FAIRFAX, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 7, 1999--

California teachers will be able to assess how prepared their students are for the new academic year by taking advantage of an offer from Edutest.com to provide free, online student assessment services.

The company will provide a public service to help California teachers evaluate incoming students for the 1999-2000 school year. Edutest@class, the new service developed by Edutest.com, the nation's leading online assessment company, will automatically assess students' readiness for the new school year and provide information directly to the teacher on a student's specific strengths and weaknesses.

The offer is particularly timely given the requirements under California's Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program, which requires mandatory statewide testing of students in grades 2-11. These state tests are used to evaluate student achievement against California's content standards. Edutest.com is offering its free assessments, correlated to the California content standards, in language arts and mathematics. Most attractive about the offer are the immediate results, which include an Edutest.com online assessment and the next-day online reporting available to teachers.

According to Susan Hardwicke, Ph.D., the president and CEO of Edutest.com, the service is being made available in several states to the first 25,000 teachers who visit the website, http://www.edutest.com, and submit a registration form.

"Edutest.com is committed to helping the educational community in California by offering this service at no charge," said Hardwicke. "Now California teachers will have an easier job of assessing student performance at the beginning of the school year and be able to obtain quantifiable information in real time."

Immediately following an online assessment, students receive their scores. The day after the assessment, a teacher accesses a detailed class report online and receives valuable information on the strengths and weaknesses of the class and individual students. The original lesson plan may now be redirected for the class's specific needs, allowing it to start the year on the right track.

The free one-month subscription can mean substantial savings to California schools that might usually pay $25 or more per student for similar paper-and-pencil based tests. Edutest.com's subscription-based services provide unlimited usage and multiple assessment versions.

Edutest.com has a proven record of success. Last April, Edutest.com offered free Internet-delivered practice exams to students in Virginia. Students in 71 percent of Virginia's school districts took part. The overwhelming response from 175,000 teachers, parents, and students indicated a tremendous need for immediate feedback.

Edutest.com is prepared for a similar response from California teachers when they use Edutest@class during the free month of service that starts in mid-September. Online registration is available now at http://www.edutest.com.

Nearly half of all school districts in Virginia, plus districts in California, Florida and Oregon, use Edutest.com's subscription-based service. The company was founded in 1995 and serves clients throughout the United States and Australia. For more information on the free service, visit http://www.edutest.com or email edutest@edutest.com.