WASHINGTON and HERNDON, Va., Oct.
13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- With an estimated 60 percent of
all first year community college students needing at least one
remedial course, the cost of re-learning basic skills is a growing
problem for students, their families and institutions of higher
education. To help address the issue, Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq:
BBBB) and K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN) today announced plans to develop an
innovative and flexible solution to cut the cost of delivering
remediation courses while increasing their overall quality and
effectiveness.
Under the agreement, Blackboard and K12 will develop a solution
that delivers K12's adaptive courses through Blackboard
Learn™, the leading online teaching and learning platform. The
combination will reduce the cost of delivering remediation
opportunities while enabling institutions to offer a wider range of
both self-paced and teacher led opportunities online.
By moving at their own speed, students can save time and money
by completing courses more quickly once they've mastered required
content, enabling them to begin degree credit courses sooner.
Institutions can offer an engaging, learner-focused remediation
experience to help retain and graduate more students over time.
Blackboard and K12 will jointly develop the solution, which will
be made available in 2011 to any higher education institution – not
just those that are already working with Blackboard to support
learning management.
"This partnership is about using technology to create a more
engaging and effective experience for remediation courses that can
be used at any institution that is facing a challenge in this
area," said Ray Henderson, President
of Blackboard Learn. "We think an innovative approach to this
problem can make remediation a better experience for students and
save money for institutions in the process."
"We face a significant challenge as a nation to help more
students achieve a postsecondary education so they can compete and
succeed in today's economy," said Ron
Packard, founder and CEO of K12 Inc. "The K12 and Blackboard
partnership will give educators a high quality and innovative
solution to help them reach a larger number of students more
effectively and efficiently. Students will benefit with greater
flexibility and access to high quality course options to prepare
them to earn a higher education degree. It will be an exciting and
one of a kind offering."
The Obama administration, major foundations, and other leading
education and policy leaders have focused attention on community
colleges where remediation is a pressing issue. General remediation
courses cost students, colleges and taxpayers billions each year
while drawing significantly on limited instructional resources,
sometimes at the expense of degree courses. Research also suggests
that students required to take the catch-up courses are far less
likely to earn a degree than those who do not.
"This is the kind of innovative thinking and fresh approach we
need if we're ever going to seriously attack this issue," said
Katherine Boswell, Executive
Director of the Community College Policy Center, a collaboration of
AED, the Education Commission of the States and Iowa State University, which has conducted
extensive research on community college remediation policies and
practices. "Institutions can't cut costs and improve remediation
without new ideas and new options."
Improving remediation is among the most important ways for
institutions to help meet ambitious targets for increasing the
number of U.S. students who earn postsecondary degrees and succeed
in the workforce. According to a U.S. Department of Labor estimate,
half of all U.S. jobs will require some college level skills by
2016.
For more information about Blackboard, please visit:
http://www.blackboard.com. For more information about K12, please
visit: http://www.k12.com/
About Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) is a global leader in enterprise
technology and innovative solutions that improve the experience of
millions of students and learners around the world every day.
Blackboard's solutions allow thousands of higher education, K-12,
professional, corporate, and government organizations to extend
teaching and learning online, facilitate campus commerce and
security, and communicate more effectively with their communities.
Founded in 1997, Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Asia
and Australia.
About K12 Inc.
K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), a technology-based education company, is
the nation's largest provider of proprietary curriculum and online
education programs for students in kindergarten through high
school. K12 provides its curriculum and academic services to
public and private online schools, traditional classrooms, hybrid
school programs, and directly to families. K12 also operates
the K12 International Academy™, an accredited, diploma-granting
online private school serving students in 59 countries plus the
U.S.
Founded in 2000, K12 has provided over 1.5 million courses –
core subjects, AP®, world languages, credit recovery, and electives
– to more than 200,000 students worldwide. Over 95 percent of
parents surveyed are satisfied with the K12 program and agree that
their children have benefited academically with K12. Students
graduating from K12 online schools have been accepted to hundreds
of higher education institutions including many of the nation's
top-ranked colleges and universities.
Any statements in this press release about future
expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other
statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans,"
"expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ
materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements
as a result of various important factors, including the factors
discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our Form 10-Q filed
on August 9, 2010 with the SEC. In
addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press
release represent the Company's views as of October 13, 2010. The Company anticipates that
subsequent events and developments will cause the Company's views
to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these
forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company
specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These
forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as
representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to
October 13, 2010.
SOURCE Blackboard Inc.
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