West Virginia serves as model for integrating technology, education
Champion Schools Program ties use of SAS inSchool^® to assessment

Morgantown, W. Va. (Aug. 10, 2005) -- West Virginia has positioned itself at the education forefront with today's announcement of the Champion Schools Program, which will help teachers customize student learning by aligning activities with state assessments. The announcement came at the annual conference of the West Virginia Department of Education's Office of Technology and Information Systems (OTIS). The state has already implemented Web-based educational technology in all 55 school districts. Champion Schools is one of the first SAS inSchool statewide programs in the country, and puts West Virginia on the cutting edge of the integration of technology into education.

The Champion Schools Program will recognize individual teachers and particular schools that are the most effective in using SAS inSchool's Curriculum Pathways^® software to meet the needs of their students. Curriculum Pathways is a Web-based planning resource for teachers and students in grades 8-14, for instruction in the core disciplines of English, mathematics, social studies, science and Spanish.

This technology is being provided to grades 8-12 in all schools and post-secondary institutions in West Virginia thanks to an expanded grant from the Wellman Family Foundation. The Wellman Family Foundation is dedicated to creating educational opportunities for West Virginia students, which includes many scholarships to Marshall University. Selby Wellman, a native West Virginian and Marshall graduate, gave a keynote presentation at the conference titled, "Globalization and the Future of Education in the 21st Century."

"Mr. Wellman is truly giving back to his home state by providing the means for this software," said State Schools Superintendent Steve Paine. "I want to thank Selby for his generosity and let him know that we truly appreciate what he is doing for the students in West Virginia."

Eleven high schools from across the state have been named as SAS inSchool Champion schools. Each Champion School will assemble a team of administrators and teachers to work with the Office of Technology in the West Virginia Department of Education. Each team will consist of a school administrator and a teacher from each of the following disciplines: mathematics, science, language arts, social studies and, when possible, Spanish. The state will provide professional development to each SAS inSchool Champion School teacher, including a Web-based electronic portfolio tool; assistance in the development of pretests and post-tests; laptop computers, scanners and digital cameras for team members.

In turn, Champion School teacher team members will attend SAS inSchool professional development sessions. They also must plan and implement four SAS inSchool Curriculum Pathways content activities, projects, Web inquiries and/or activities and mentor other teachers in the use and implementation of SAS inSchool Curriculum Pathways content. Team members will assist a minimum of 20 students in documenting evidence of usage and student progress.

Champion School administrators will attend SAS inSchool professional development to support the teachers and students as they utilize the online content. The Wellman Foundation will provide funding for substitutes for the team members as they mentor other teachers in the classroom implementation of SAS inSchool.

"Preparing students for the 21st century work force requires new approaches and ideas," said John Boling, director of SAS inSchool. "West Virginia is at the forefront in this area with its model for a successful statewide educational technology deployment. This model can be replicated in other states, a fact which opens up many exciting opportunities for students and teachers alike."

About SAS inSchool and the SAS Education Practice
Curriculum Pathways is now in use by schools across the country and is provided for a nominal per-student fee to drive wide access to these powerful resources. In addition to the Wellman Family Foundation's grant for West Virginia, secondary schools across North Carolina and rural Florida have access to the technology thanks to grants from Bank of America Charitable Investments. For nearly 30 years, SAS has remained true to its academic roots by supporting educational causes. That philanthropic mission comes from a belief that corporate and private citizens have an opportunity to enhance the educational process.

Through SAS inSchool software and its Education Practice, SAS remains dedicated to creating a culture of leadership and accountability in education by providing teachers, administrators, policy-makers, students, parents and support staff with the best tools for aligning resources with evidence-based outcomes.

SAS inSchool was established in 1996 as a division of SAS Institute. SAS inSchool resources have been listed among the top software programs by the Gateway to Educational Materials, Technology & Learning, the Southern Regional Education Board, and other national consortia. For three years, SAS inSchool has won the Technology & Learning Award of Excellence. SAS inSchool offers Web-based instructional software for 208 topics, including more than 5,000 Web resources and 98 media-rich InterActivities. For more information, see www.SASinSchool.com. For more information on the SAS Education Practice, which serves to improve and expand educational opportunities in grades K-20, visit http://www.sas.com/govedu/edu/index.html.

About SAS
SAS is the market leader in providing a new generation of business intelligence software and services that create true enterprise intelligence. SAS solutions are used at more than 40,000 sites — including 96 of the top 100 companies on the FORTUNE Global 500^® — to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate and informed decisions; and to drive organizations forward. SAS is the only vendor that completely integrates leading data warehousing, analytics and traditional BI applications to create intelligence from massive amounts of data. For nearly three decades, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know^®. Visit us at www.sas.com.

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