Apangea Learning Continues to Take Urban School Districts by Storm

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Apangea Learning, a leading provider of cost-effective differentiated math instruction, continues to build upon its successes in large urban settings throughout the United States with the implementation of SmartHelp in the Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Chicago Public Schools this fall.

"Apangea Learning SmartHelp has been very successful in instructing students in large urban schools in New York City, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh to master fundamental and advanced math concepts, develop problem solving skills, and dramatically improve their performance on high stakes exams," explained Apangea Learning CEO Louis Piconi. "SmartHelp's multilingual capabilities, coupled with its three-tiered instructional escalation model, will provide Atlanta, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Public Schools an amazing resource to help meet their students' individual needs."

The Office of Extended Education Programs (EEP), headed by Dr. Esther Monclova-Johnson, is an initiative of Academic Services in the Differentiated Learning Division of the Washington, D.C. Public Schools. SmartHelp will be implemented in one of the EEP's largest after school programs, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which provides students with academic intervention, support and enrichment. One of the primary goals of the SmartHelp program is to provide D.C. Public School students both content mastery and academic math proficiency.

Atlanta Public Schools will implement SmartHelp primarily in its middle schools for a 1,600 student program. This program will help those students struggling to master fundamental math skills and begin to instruct them in more advanced math concepts.

Chicago Public School sixth grade classes will be the first recipients of Apangea Learning SmartHelp this month with plans to expand further through the middle grades. SmartHelp will be integrated to directly meet the needs of each teacher's overall math curriculum to provide differentiated learning.

Apangea Learning has been very well received by administrators, teachers and students.

"SmartHelp, plus my support, kept my students attending, engaged, and progressing. Many of the students made significant strides that they would not have made if the program had not been there for intervention support," explained Barbara Shoap of the Philadelphia School District. "SmartHelp enabled me to be more available to my students' individual learning needs. It made my day better, every day."

About Apangea Learning: Apangea Learning is setting a new standard in the way students learn. The company's groundbreaking SmartHelp tutoring solution enables students to dramatically improve achievement, at the most cost- effective price. SmartHelp provides differentiated math instruction for every student via a multi-tiered escalation model that integrates its intelligent tutoring system and live one-on-one human tutors. It utilizes innovative Web- based technology that engages students and teaches fundamental problem-solving skills. Apangea Learning's solutions are based on one of the world's largest bodies of cognitive research and are aligned to both the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and with individual state math standards. Visit Apangea Learning on the Web at http://www.apangealearning.com.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link. David Farrer http://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=57268 Matt Hausmann http://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=57259 Louis Piconi http://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=57257 Gerry Balbier http://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=57261 PAULA BUTTERFIELD, Ph.D. http://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=57260