Archipelago Releases Study Island Version 3.0 Newest Version of the Online Standards Mastery Program Offers Enhanced Assessment, Instruction, Communic

DALLAS, Jan. 7, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Archipelago Learning (Nasdaq:ARCL), a leading subscription-based online education company, today announced the release of Study Island Version 3.0. With new and expanded tools for assessment, instruction, parent communication, collaboration and planning, Study Island v3 provides a cost-effective, comprehensive solution to meet diverse needs of K-12 school districts at a very affordable price, averaging $3 to $10 per student.

Administrators, teachers, parents, and students alike will benefit from the variety of new features and capabilities included in Study Island v3. For example, the new Custom Assessment Builder enables teachers to easily build customized assessments in reading and math, giving them the ongoing data they need to make informed instructional decisions. Additionally, the new Writing Assignment module gives teachers and students a paperless way to develop writing skills across the curriculum.

Study Island v3 also simplifies communication between teachers and parents with a new parent notification system. Teachers can choose from a set of pre-defined notification emails, or schedule and send customized messages to parents about student performance, upcoming assignments, suggested topics of study at home, and other school events such as field trips.

In addition to increasing the communication flow with students and parents, Study Island v3 gives teachers a digital meeting place for real-time collaboration and networking, as well as new professional development tools.

"Faced with a variety of achievement and accountability mandates, school districts often juggle multiple technology systems -- each designed for a specific purpose and specific users. The cumulative cost can be substantial, not to mention the toll it takes on teachers who must cobble together information from all these systems to meet students' needs and keep parents informed," said Tim McEwen, CEO for Archipelago Learning. "Study Island is a single, integrated product that eliminates the need to purchase disparate systems for instruction, assessment, planning and communication, which can save school districts thousands of dollars annually and save valuable instructional time. With the introduction of Version 3, Study Island is designed to offer an even more comprehensive suite of instructional resources, with robust tools designed to improve the performance of all stakeholders in a child's education."

Additional new and improved Study Island v3 functionality includes:

• Text-to-Speech Functionality: When turned on, a student will be able to highlight text and click the speaker icon to have text read aloud.

• Professional Development Toolbox (PD Toolbox): A collection of standards-based lesson plans, lessons, instructional videos, and supplemental resources to provide educators with "just-in-time" classroom best practices.

• Interactive Toolkit: A set of tools available to the student, such as on-screen ruler, protractor, calculators (classic and scientific), scratch pad, and text highlighters.

• Enhanced Reporting: A new report that helps measure Response to Intervention. The report shows a specific student's progress in specific subjects and topics by graphing sessions and scores for both on grade level material and building block topics.


About Archipelago Learning

Archipelago Learning is a leading subscription-based online education company that provides standards-based instruction, practice, assessments and productivity tools that improve the performance of educators and students via proprietary web-based platforms. Study Island, the core product line, helps students in kindergarten through 12th grade master grade-level academic standards in a fun and engaging manner. Study Island products are utilized by approximately 9 million students in more than 20,000 schools in 50 states. For more information, please visit www.archipelagolearning.com. Archipelago Learning is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.