Houghton Mifflin Co. News Release - 06/03/04
Utah State Office of Education Selects Riverside Publishing for Norm-referenced Testing
ITASCA, Ill. - June 3, 2004 - The Utah State Board of Education today awarded Riverside Publishing a five-year contract to administer Norm-referenced Tests (NRTs) annually to students in grades three, five, eight, and eleven throughout the Utah public school system. The test administration will begin during the 2004-05 school year.
The Utah State Office of Education will use Riverside's Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), Iowa Tests of Educational Development® (ITED), and Logramos®, the achievement test battery in Spanish, to measure Utah student achievement and critical thinking skills in reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. The Iowa Tests® will compare the achievement of Utah students to that of students across the country.
"The Iowa Tests are the only nationally-normed standardized tests that are developed by independent authors recognized as experts in the field of measurement theory and practice," said Jim Nicholson, general manager of Riverside Publishing. "We are pleased to bring this trusted measure of achievement to the State of Utah, supporting its goal to 'promote the achievement of high standards of learning for each child.'"
"The Iowa Tests will fulfill the U-PASS requirement to gather information about Utah student performance relative to other students across the nation," said Louise Moulding, evaluation and assessment director for the Utah State Office of Education. "We have selected a test that adequately aligns to the knowledge and skills expected in the Utah Core Curriculum, but is more general for purposes of comparison with students outside of Utah. We will continue, as mandated in U-PASS, to use the Core CRTs to measure the performance of students relative to the Utah Core Curriculum."
Riverside Publishing's educational assessments provide a broad range of measures of achievement, performance, and ability to meet the changing assessment needs of today's schools. The Iowa Tests are based on seventy years of on-going research at the University of Iowa, and are used nationwide for local assessment or state testing programs. For more information, please visit the Riverside Publishing Web site at www.riverpub.com.
About Riverside Publishing
Riverside Publishing (www.riverpub.com) develops and markets testing and assessment products for the primary, secondary, and clinical markets. The Company publishes curriculum-based, developmental, early childhood, psychological, and cognitive assessments.
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 today combines its tradition of excellence with a commitment to innovation. The Company's web site can be found at www.hmco.com.
CONTACT:
Collin Earnst
Vice President, Communications
Houghton Mifflin Company
617-351-5113
collin_earnst@hmco.com
|
