Houghton Mifflin Co. News Release - February 7, 2006

Houghton Mifflin Combines Two Divisions to Create Leader in Formative Assessment Market

ITASCA, Ill. — February 7, 2006 — Houghton Mifflin Company announced today that two of its divisions, Riverside Publishing and Edusoft, have merged to provide school districts with the most comprehensive standards-based assessment solution available. Edusoft will become one of five product units within Riverside, joining units focused on clinical assessments, state assessments, educational and group tests, and formative assessments.

The Edusoft product unit will maintain operations in San Francisco, and will continue to develop the Edusoft Assessment Management System. Iwan Streichenberger, who served as president of Edusoft, has been named vice president and managing director of the Edusoft product unit and will report to Lee R. Jones, president of Riverside Publishing.

"As customers' requirements have evolved and become more sophisticated, it was a logical decision to combine the resources of the leading provider of K–12 educational assessments with the innovator of award-winning online assessment services," said Jones. "This merger enables us to provide integrated assessment solutions to schools so they can create, score, view and act on assessment results quickly to improve student performance."

The merger offers customers high-quality assessments with a paper-to-web test delivery system; a scoring engine; flexible data analysis features; professional development; and reports that connect assessment results to instruction.

"The development of district-wide benchmarks aligned with the adopted curriculum is a step in the right direction for addressing the needs of the individual child," said Dr. Clara Patterson, director of educational services at the Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools System. "Since we started using the Edusoft Assessment Management System two years ago, we have been able to quickly evaluate benchmark data that we use to target effective classroom instruction for each child. The Edusoft system provides teachers with quick and easy reports they can use to make data-driven instructional decisions and monitor academic progress to date. As a result, we have seen performance gains in language arts."

"The integration of Edusoft and Riverside allows us to focus on the development and implementation of common assessment solutions across different assessment products," added Jones. "Riverside customers now have access to an integrated assessment management system that will help them improve performance and reduce the achievement gap among their students on a daily basis."

About Riverside Publishing Company
Riverside Publishing Company offers a wide range of highly regarded educational, cognitive and developmental assessment products. Among Riverside's flagship products are the Iowa Tests, the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, the Edusoft Assessment Management System, Assess2Know, and the Woodcock-Johnson III. As a charter member of the Association of Test Publishers, Riverside serves both the K–12 educational markets and the clinical assessment market with print, CD-ROM and online assessment tools. Riverside Publishing Company was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of Houghton Mifflin in 1979. Information on Riverside's educational and clinical products can be found at www.riversidepublishing.com or at 800-767-8420.

About Houghton Mifflin
Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Company is one of the leading educational publishers in the United States, with more than $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 nonfiction for adults and young readers. 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.