PALO ALTO, Calif. – February 23, 2010 – Empirical Education Inc., a Silicon Valley research firm, today announced that the Poway Unified School District (PUSD) in San Diego County showed the effectiveness of its supplementary reading program by using a new web-based research tool. MeasureResults® enabled PUSD to empirically demonstrate that CompassLearning Odyssey improved reading skills for students in seventh and eighth grade.

“We wanted to know if the new program was working,” said Eric Lehew, Executive Director Learning Support Services at PUSD. “We wanted to make sure that our investment was making a difference for our students before expanding the program to additional middle school classes. The positive results from the study we conducted with MeasureResults gave us that evidence.”

MeasureResults is a suite of online tools that makes federally qualified research designs and statistical processes accessible to school systems and educational publishers who want to evaluate the effectiveness of products and services aimed at improving student performance.

In seeking evidence of the effectiveness of the reading program, PUSD used longitudinal data as well as electronic logs from the CompassLearning software. MeasureResults provided a template specifying the data needed for the statistical processes and made it easy for the district to securely upload the data for integration, analysis, and preparation of a custom report.

In the spring, PUSD will continue using MeasureResults to evaluate reading and math programs, which were implemented in elementary schools for the first time this school year.

“MeasureResults will change the way that school districts and product developers conduct rigorous evaluations,” said Denis Newman, Empirical Education President. “Instead of hiring outside evaluators or onsite research experts or statisticians, MeasureResults allows school district personnel to design a study, collect data, and review reports in our user-friendly online platform.”

Empirical Education plans to demonstrate the MeasureResults on March 1 at the Consortium for School Networking conference in Washington, DC. “We’re excited to unveil the results of our hard work,” says Kylene Chinsio Shen, Empirical Education Product Manager. “We are confident that it will make research a whole lot easier, bringing the power to evaluate their own programs to a new set of school systems.”

MeasureResults grew out of a federally funded research project to develop a low cost method for schools to conduct their own research. The product was developed for commercial distribution under a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the U.S. Department of Education. By moving the educational research processes online, MeasureResults makes school-run evaluations more efficient and less expensive.

About Empirical Education Inc.
Empirical Education was founded to help school districts make cost effective decisions about adopting new instructional and professional development programs. The company partners with and provides research services to school districts, research organizations, publishers, and state and federal agencies—including the US Department of Education—to determine the effectiveness of programs.

To obtain a copy of the complete report, visit www.empiricaleducation.com.

For further information, contact:
Kylene Chinsio Shen
Product Manager, Empirical Education Inc.
425 Sherman Ave., Suite 210
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Office: (650) 328-1734 x137
Mobile: (617) 319-4924
kshen@empiricaleducation.com