Pearson to Acquire EET: Adds Leading Physics Program to Online Homework and Assessment Services.

UPPER SADDLE RIVER, N.J. -- Pearson Education, the world's leading education company, announced today that it has agreed to acquire Effective Educational Technologies (EET).

EET is a privately held company based in Cambridge, Mass., that developed the next-generation online assessment and tutorial programs MasteringPhysics(TM), MasteringGeneralChemistry(TM), and MasteringAstronomy(TM). With the Mastering program, instructors gain invaluable insights into students' understanding and learning patterns, and students receive feedback based on common wrong answers and misconceptions. By capturing the step-by-step difficulties of individual students, the Mastering platform responds to each student with individualized hints and instruction while it retains information and patterns to benefit future students. The learning benefits of the Mastering program have been cited in studies sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

As instructors and students look beyond textbooks to integrated packages that also deliver assessment and personalized learning, Pearson Education has established a leadership position in many markets in science and math by providing tutorials and assessment products that are proven to work.

Pearson's science publishers -- Addison Wesley/Benjamin Cummings and Prentice Hall -- have extended their leadership position with the two market-leading science and math homework and assessment platforms, Mastering and the MyLabs. Together, these publishers bring a wealth of content, resources, and support behind these groundbreaking applications.

The first Mastering product -- MasteringPhysics(TM) -- was launched by Benjamin Cummings in collaboration with the EET team just two years ago. Currently in use by more than 25% of U.S. college students taking calculus-based general physics, MasteringPhysics(TM) is now the most widely adopted online system in university physics. Since its launch, it has responded to more than 50 million student submissions and is providing instructors with teaching insights never before possible.

The Mastering technology and content pedagogy are based on the work of Dr. David E. Pritchard, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and associate director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics. For more than 25 years, Dr. Pritchard has made groundbreaking discoveries in science, and he has mentored four students who later won Nobel prizes. His approach to educational research is equally defining.

Dr. Pritchard said, "EET invented an interactive online homework tutor that provides unparalleled teaching insights and is research proven to effectively raise students' grades and understanding. We have enjoyed a wonderful partnership with Pearson Addison Wesley for four years, developing this and turning it into the dominant homework product just two years after its launch -- one used by one in four students in the university physics market. We are optimistic that its recent launch in chemistry and astronomy will equal or exceed this benchmark performance. EET is excited to join Pearson Education and extend this breakthrough educational technology to millions of students in multiple courses across higher education."

Will Ethridge, president and CEO of Pearson Higher Education, International and Professional, said, "These personalized homework and assessment programs are the next generation of online learning. Evidence is mounting that they enable a powerful transformation in student understanding and learning. The business impact is equally clear: MasteringPhysics(TM) played a pivotal role in taking our physics program from #3 to the market leader in just three years. We see a wide variety of applications for the Mastering technology, and this acquisition allows us to migrate it rapidly to new disciplines."

The Mastering technology joins Pearson Education's other online homework and assessment platforms, including MyMathLab, offered in conjunction with Pearson mathematics and statistics textbooks. Since 2001, approximately 1.5 million students have used MyMathLab, and last year more than 460,000 students at 1100 colleges and universities were using the product. This platform is also available for students in economics, psychology, and history.

For more information, go to www.masteringphysics.com.

ABOUT PEARSON EDUCATION

Educating 100 million people worldwide, Pearson Education (www.pearsoned.com) is the global leader in educational publishing, providing research-based print and digital programs to help students of all ages learn at their own pace, in their own way. While virtually all students in America learn from a Pearson program at some point in their educational career, about three million college students are currently pursuing their courses online using Pearson Higher Education's products. The company is home to such renowned publishing brands as Pearson Prentice Hall, Pearson Longman, Pearson Addison Wesley, Pearson Allyn & Bacon, and Pearson Benjamin Cummings. Pearson Education is part of Pearson (NYSE: PSO; LSE: PSON), the international media company. In addition to Pearson Education, Pearson's primary operations include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.