Harcourt Assessment Acquires Edformation

With the addition of the AIMSweb product, Harcourt Assessment now provides a holistic assessment approach to Response to Intervention

14 December 2006

Leading test publisher Harcourt Assessment, Inc., announced today that it has acquired Edformation, Inc., a privately held company offering its AIMSweb product to education customers. AIMSweb is a research-based screening and progress monitoring tool for use by special education teachers, curriculum specialists and school psychologists as part of a Response to Intervention (RtI) solution.

“For students with serious educational needs and those at risk for educational failure, one of the most powerful interventions educators can use is systematic and frequent progress monitoring,” said Harcourt Assessment President and CEO Michael Hansen. “When used in conjunction with our other outstanding PsychCorp^® assessment products, AIMSweb will provide our customers with a complete RtI solution of unmatched quality, allowing education professionals to monitor student progress and customize instruction to best meet the individual needs of their students.”

Edformation, Inc., a privately held company based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, creates Standard Assessment probes, formative assessment materials and online monitoring and reporting software for use in K-12, special education and a wide variety of other educational settings. Edformation’s unique and powerful web-based achievement monitoring software engine, AIMSweb, provides users with a flexible tool to analyze student performance.

“It has been a wonderful experience to create a company like Edformation and to watch it grow and prosper while helping to improve the education of so many children,” said Edformation, Inc. President and CEO Gary Germann. “It’s inspiring to know that the products we have put so much of ourselves into will now be marketed by a world-class test publisher like Harcourt Assessment. The products and technology we have created will now be able to help more education professionals improve instruction and help many more children achieve in school to their true potential.”

With multiple assessment probes and charting software, AIMSweb allows schools to identify students who are at risk of not performing well and direct resources appropriately to them throughout the year. AIMSweb provides education professionals with a flexible and intuitive tool to monitor the progress of struggling students throughout the year, allowing them to make changes to instructional techniques to best meet the needs of the individual.

About Harcourt Assessment, Inc.
Based in San Antonio, Harcourt Assessment, Inc. is a leading provider of high-quality assessment instruments and testing programs published under two brand names –– Harcourt Assessment and PsychCorp™. For more than 85 years, Harcourt Assessment has been providing insight about children and adults; informing instruction, curricula, and clinical practice; collaborating with educators and clinical professionals; and creating assessment innovations, in order to provide the most effective assessment solutions for the success of all individuals.

The company is a unit of Harcourt Education, a global education provider serving students and teachers in PreK through grade 12, adult learners, and readers of all ages. Harcourt Education is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc. (www.reedelsevier.com), a world-leading publisher and information provider. It is owned equally by Reed Elsevier PLC (NYSE: RUK) and Reed Elsevier NV (NYSE: ENL).