FOLSOM, Calif., April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Pearson School Systems, a business of Pearson Education-the world's leading integrated education company-recently hosted its second annual Advanced Learning Summit in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Advanced Learning Summit - a four-day exclusive training event for the nation's top PowerSchool Student Information System (SIS) administrators - is taught by PowerSchool's top developers, trainers, and analysts. This course is aimed at giving "the best of the best" a detailed and extensive "behind the scenes" view into PowerSchool.

After spending a few days working through the advanced training curriculum, PowerSchool Administrators and trainers seized the opportunity to give back to the community, by applying their knowledge in a practical way. They helped rebuild systems and student data at New Orleans Science and Math Charter High School (NOSM)-a school that was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. NOSM is one of only two specialty science and math schools in the country, with an open admissions policy and a majority of African American students.

Since Hurricane Katrina, NOSM has relocated and rebuilt its internal infrastructure. However, despite this progress, more than a year has passed since school administrators and teachers have been able to utilize the PowerSchool system. NOSM has been struggling under the weight of the same re- building effort that is going on throughout New Orleans.

To solve this dilemma, more than 60 PowerSchool developers, trainers, analysts and administrators attending the Advanced Learning Summit, gathered at NOSM to bring the PowerSchool system, its data, and school staff up-to- date.

The Advanced Learning Summit attendees and staff delivered the training and tools required to help the high school sufficiently manage its student information including:

-- End of term process, yearly process, counselor tools -- Importing and exporting student data to state reporting system -- Customized and standard reporting -- Office functions such as searching, attendance, form letters, mail letters -- PowerGrade - PowerSchool's grade book application -- PowerScheduler - PowerSchool's student scheduling application; -- Discipline screens and behavioral reporting features; -- Customized reporting for student health and immunization data.

Within a few hours, the Advanced Learning Summit team was able to rebuild the high school's student data and prepare its staff to utilize PowerSchool for the remainder of the school year and the many school years ahead.

"It's hard to believe that one night can solve so many issues," said Barbara MacPhee, Principal of New Orleans Science and Math Charter High School. "Pearson staff and course attendees were more than helpful. They not only rebuilt much of our student data, they also trained staff and wrote new reports to make our day-to-day work a little easier. I understand that many attendees left their phone numbers and email addresses with our staff, in case we had other questions. We appreciate the work that went into making this a successful venture and look forward to working with PowerSchool again."

"The work at New Orleans Science and Math Charter High School was superb. We should do this every time we attend a conference in any community - there is always a school out there in need of help," said Cynthia LaPier, Chief Information Officer, Plainedge Public School District and participant in the 2007 PowerSchool Advanced Learning Summit. "It was an honor to witness first- hand the bravery and fortitude involved in rebuilding a city and the pride its residents have in their children. I just loved it and am proud to have contributed to the reconstruction efforts by helping this school repair its student data."

Pearson School Systems is committed to helping its customers advance student learning through innovative student information management tools such as PowerSchool. Further illustrating this commitment, the Company will follow up the work it did during the Advanced Learning Summit, by sending a PowerSchool resource to NOSM to ensure they are on a continued path to success.

About Pearson Education

Educating 100 million people worldwide, Pearson Education (http://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. Virtually all students in America learn from a Pearson program at some point in their educational careers. The company is home to such renowned publishing brands as Pearson Prentice Hall, Pearson Scott Foresman, Pearson Learning Group, Pearson Digital Learning, Pearson Educational Measurement, Pearson Achievement Solutions, Pearson School Systems, and others. Pearson Education is part of Pearson , the international media company. In addition to Pearson Education, Pearson's primary operations include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.

About Pearson School Systems

Pearson School Systems is advancing student learning through its highly interoperable enterprise solutions for student information management. As the market leader in K12 technology innovations, Pearson School Systems supports millions of students, with a product lineup that includes PowerSchool Premier, Chancery SMS, Mac School, Win School, and SASI. Pearson Inform, the achievement data analysis and decision support tool rounds out a solution set designed to provide administrators, teachers, students, and parents with comprehensive software options that are easy-to-use and can be customized to meet a wide range of end-user needs. All Pearson products are fully supported with training and the finest customer support services in the industry. http://www.pearsonschoolsystems.com/

CONTACT: Andrea Carson of Pearson School Systems, +1-604-297-4719, or
andrea.carson@pearson.com; or Nicole Loring of Zer0 to 5ive, +1-617-834-2190,
or nicole@0to5.com, for Pearson School Systems

Web site: http://www.pearsoned.com/
http://www.pearsonschoolsystems.com/