CIO of Career Education Corporation, Mark H. Griesbaum, Named by Computerworld as a 2006 Premier 100 IT Leader; Award recognizes executives who show exemplary technology leadership in resolving pressing business issues.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. -- Career Education Corporation (Nasdaq:CECO) today announced that Mark H. Griesbaum, the company's chief information officer, was named by Computerworld , IDG's "Voice of IT Management," as a Premier 100 IT Leader for 2006. Griesbaum and other honorees will be recognized at a special ceremony during Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders Conference, March 5-7, 2006 at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert, California.

"This honor reflects Mark's outstanding work in leading CEC's information technology efforts and supporting our mission of providing access to a high quality education," said John Larson, Career Education Corporation's chairman and chief executive officer. "Serving the technology needs of our students, faculty and staff across the world creates many unique and complex IT challenges. We are a company deeply committed to learning and information sharing, and Mark has used his outstanding vision and creativity to ensure that we meet those commitments every day."

CEC has an IT staff of 94 professionals. Griesbaum ensures that a close working relationship exists between his staff and administrators at the company's more than 80 schools around the world. His group put in place the company's unified global technology infrastructure and a suite of common business applications with CEC's existing schools, and created a framework to integrate new acquisitions and start up schools into the company's system. In unifying the diverse campuses, increasing the efficiency of the system and the effectiveness of communications throughout the company, this strategy has allowed each school's faculty and staff to spend their time on the core mission of the company, delivering a high-quality education to each and every student.

"A number of challenges ranging from business continuity to security and outsourcing have redefined the traditional IT executive's role," said Don Tennant, editor in chief, Computerworld. "Mark Griesbaum, along with all our honorees, has demonstrated how technology can be used effectively, and often times creatively, to positively impact their organizations for the long term."

Griesbaum was selected to Premier 100 from nearly 500 nominees who were measured against Computerworld's IT Leadership Index, a set of characteristics that describes executives who guide the effective use of IT in their organizations, and evaluated by the editors and by an external panel of outside judges.

"It is an honor to be named a Premier 100 IT Leader," said Griesbaum. "This award is a credit to my team and to the outstanding contributions they have delivered in establishing CEC as a pioneer and industry-leader in the education sector."

About Computerworld

Computerworld, the "Voice of IT Management," is the most trusted source for the critical information needs of enterprise IT management. Computerworld's integrated offerings form the U.S.-based hub of the world's largest (51-edition) global IT media network through its weekly publication, Computerworld.com Web site, focused conference series and custom research. In the past five years alone, Computerworld has won more than 100 print and online awards for editorial and design excellence, surpassing its direct competition by an order of magnitude. Recognition includes the 2004 Magazine of the Year Award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors and a Jesse H. Neal Award for "Best News Coverage." In print since 1967, Computerworld is the source for information technology management, with a guaranteed rate base of 180,050, a total print audience of 1,293,000 (Intelliquest CIMS 2005 Business Influencer Study) and an online audience of over 1.1 million unique monthly visitors (DoubleClick).

Computerworld is a business unit of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading technology media, research and events company. A privately held company, IDG publishes more than 300 magazines and newspapers, including Bio-IT World, CIO, CSO, Computerworld, GamePro, InfoWorld, Network World and PC World. The company features the largest network of technology-specific Web sites, with more than 400 around the world. IDG is also a leading producer of more than 170 computer-related events worldwide, including LinuxWorld Conference & Expo(R), Macworld Conference & Expo(R), DEMO(R) and IDC Directions. IDC provides global market research and advice through offices in 50 countries. Company information is available at http://www.idg.com/.

About Career Education Corporation

Career Education Corporation (www.careered.com), through its colleges, schools and universities, offers quality higher education to more than 100,000 students both on-campus and online in a variety of career-oriented disciplines. CEC reports and discusses its operating results in two separate segments: the Colleges, Schools and Universities segment, which represents the results of the campuses providing education on-ground, and the Online Education Group, which represents the results of its campuses providing education online.

The Colleges, Schools and Universities segment includes more than 70,000 students attending one of 80-plus campuses owned by CEC. The on-ground campuses are located throughout the U.S., Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates and offer doctoral degree, master's degree, bachelor's degree, associate degree, and diploma programs in the career-oriented disciplines of business studies, visual communication and design technologies, health education, information technology, and culinary arts.

The Online Education Group segment includes more than 30,000 students attending the web-based virtual campuses of either American InterContinental University Online or Colorado Technical University Online. The online campuses of these two universities collectively offer a variety of degrees in information technology, computer science, business, visual communication, health sciences, criminal justice, and education.