Apex Learning Partners with Power-Glide to Increase Foreign Language Course Offerings for Next School Year.

Business Editors/Education Writers

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2001

As part of its ongoing efforts to help schools extend student access to hard-to-staff courses, Apex Learning, the leading provider of virtual school solutions for K-12, today announced that it will add three online foreign language courses and an Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish Exam Review product to its 2002-2003 school year course catalog. The new AP Spanish, Latin I and Latin II courses are being developed as a result of Apex Learning's partnership with Power-Glide International, Inc., creator of innovative foreign language courses. In just the first few weeks of this school year, demand for the French, German and Spanish core curriculum courses added in September has surpassed expectations.

"Our virtual school customers want foreign language courses so they can offer the educational opportunities their students need to prepare for college," said Keith Oelrich, president and CEO of Apex Learning. "By partnering with Power-Glide, Apex Learning is able to offer students online courses that include Power-Glide's high quality content, enhanced by our virtual schools expertise and delivered on our platform developed specifically for K-12 education."

The courses use interactive instruction tools, including audio and visual activities to accommodate a variety of student learning styles. Students can record and listen to audio files of themselves speaking, and submit those files online for instructors to evaluate. Power-Glide and Apex Learning provide experienced online language teachers for the courses.

Dr. Robert Blair is the creator of the Power-Glide method of language acquisition, recently recognized in an international publication as a "legendary maverick linguist." "You can't even imagine how being bilingual will enrich your life and give you new perspectives on the world," said Blair. "Becoming a participating member of a new language community is like making a trip to another planet."

As a result of the Apex Learning/Power-Glide collaboration, the opportunity to become bilingual will now be extended to students in school districts where foreign language teachers are not available. With the start of the school year, the national teacher shortage is a hot topic and foreign language is one of the areas where schools are struggling to find qualified instructors. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Education, nearly three million new teachers will be needed over the next decade to support expanding enrollments and replace retiring teachers. Virtual schools, as a supplement to traditional classroom education, are one way that states and school districts are expanding educational opportunities for their students.

Virtual Greenbush, a division of the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center, provides Kansas students and educators with access to a wide variety of online courses, including Apex Learning's AP courses. This year, the center added Apex Learning's core curriculum foreign language to its offerings.

Mike Bodensteiner, program director, said, "Over the last two years, we have seen an increase in student and school district interest in offering online foreign language courses, particularly in rural areas, because of both the teacher shortage and the scheduling flexibility that online courses offer."

Power-Glide will also collaborate with Apex Learning to create an AP Spanish Exam Review, an online study program that creates a personalized study plan to help students prepare for the AP exam. Apex Learning currently offers AP Exam Review in 11 subjects. Last spring, enrollment in the online study program grew to approximately 40,000 students, an 11-fold increase over the previous year's enrollment numbers.

Apex Learning currently has agreements with 28 states including California, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico and Washington - representing 15,000 of the nation's 25,000 high schools. Apex Learning also works with large school districts including those in Chicago, Houston and Milwaukee. Last year, the company served more than 50,000 students with its online curriculum, and expects over twice the enrollment during the 2001-02 school year.

About Apex Learning

Apex Learning (www.apexlearning.com) is the leading provider of virtual school solutions for K-12 institutions. Educators use virtual schools to give more students access to hard-to-staff courses. Apex Learning offers complete solutions including technology, curriculum and support service designed for K-12 requirements. The company was among the first to offer online courses and has four years experience providing effective Internet classrooms for thousands of students. Apex Learning is fully accredited by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. Started by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Apex Learning is a privately held company with investments from Vulcan Ventures, Warburg Pincus, Edison Schools, Maveron LLC, Kaplan Ventures and Michigan State University.

About Power-Glide International

Power-Glide International creates and distributes innovative foreign language programs based on Dr. Robert W. Blair's forty years of linguistic research documented in his book, "Innovative Approaches to Language Teaching." The courses are fully accredited by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. Power-Glide's combination of unique instructional design, holistic approach, linguistic richness and certified teachers enable students to acquire languages and get official school credit. Power-Glide currently offers the following languages for grades 7-12: Spanish, French, German, Latin, Russian, Japanese, ESL-Spanish, ESL-French; and for grades K-6: Spanish, French, German, Latin.