PLATO Selected by the Mississippi Department of Education to Provide Students with Academic and Workplace Skills

Business Wire, March 10, 2000

Business Editors

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 10, 2000

PLATO scores over 91 out of 100 points

in a formal evaluation process.

TRO Learning, Inc. (Nasdaq:TUTR) announced today it received a contract in February valued in excess of $450,000 from the Mississippi Department of Education to provide PLATO(R) courseware to 80 vocational schools involved in the Partners in Education Construction Initiative. PLATO was selected based on the results of a thorough evaluation process conducted by a panel of nine vocational education professionals that reviewed the products of nine educational software companies. Twenty-nine packages were submitted for consideration, of which 24 were excluded. Only three of the software vendors met or exceeded the minimum requirements for both academic and workplace skills. Out of a possible 100 points based on software evaluation (75%) and cost (25%), PLATO scored 91.9 points with the other two remaining vendors scoring a distant 77.17 and 73.4 points.

PLATO will be used to provide high school students with academic and employability skills instruction they need to successfully enter the construction trade. G. Thomas Ahern, senior vice president of TRO Learning, said, "This significant contract award is another confirmation to the fact that PLATO is the best educational software on the market for secondary school students. We are particularly pleased with the extremely high score we received on the formal evaluation. Our new partnership with the Mississippi Department of Education will provide us with an opportunity to establish a strong presence in Mississippi schools, just as we have in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas."

About TRO Learning

With revenues of over $44 million, TRO Learning, Inc., which has announced an intended name change to PLATO Learning, Inc., is a publicly held company traded as TUTR on the NASDAQ-NMS. Offering more than 2,000 hours and 10,000 learning objectives of comprehensive academic and applied skills courseware designed for adolescents and adults, PLATO Learning Systems are marketed to middle and high schools, colleges, job training programs, correctional institutions, military education programs, corporations, and consumers. PLATO is delivered via networks, CD-ROM, private intranets, and the Internet.

An international training and education company, TRO Learning's headquarters are located at 4660 West 77th Street, Edina, Minnesota 55435, (952) 832-1000 or (800) 869-2000. PLATO's executive offices are located at Poplar Creek Office Plaza, 1721 Moon Lake Boulevard, Suite 555, Hoffman Estates, Illinois 60194, (847) 781-7800. PLATO has domestic offices located throughout the United States, and international offices in the United Kingdom, and throughout Canada. PLATO Learning has international distributors located in Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. The company's Web site addresses on the Internet's World Wide Web are www.tro.com and www.plato.com

This press release contains forward-looking information regarding future prospects. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to achieve any particular result in future periods because of uncertainties, such as timing of receipt of product orders and delivery to its customers and other matters relating to revenue recognition accounting principles.

(R) PLATO is a registered trademark of The Roach Organization, Inc. and TRO Learning, Inc.