Houghton Mifflin Co. News Release - November 6, 2008

California State Board of Education Approves Six Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Reading/Language Arts—English-Language Development Programs for Use in Grades K–8

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt provides comprehensive education solutions for California's diverse needs, only company with a program to help districts address difficult budget situation.

Sacramento, Calif. — November 6, 2008 — Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, California's leading provider of learning materials for California students and teachers, announced today that the California State Board of Education unanimously approved all six of the Company's recommended reading/language arts and intervention programs specifically designed for California students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Each provides high quality, standards-based instructional materials but with a unique spirit and energy to their delivery meaning the greatest flexibility for students and teachers.

Included in the programs approved by the State Board of Education are four "basic" and "basic with English language development" programs and two "intervention" and "intervention for English learners" programs. The approved products provide school districts, teachers and students with the highest quality instructional and supplemental materials backed by world-class service and designed to work seamlessly with complementary Houghton Mifflin Harcourt teacher and administrative tools.

"At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, our number one priority is providing materials that will help to improve student achievement," said Tony Lucki, chairman and chief executive officer of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. "The programs approved today have been reviewed by literally hundreds of California educators and are based on real-world results."

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is the only publisher with an approved offering designed to address California's budget crisis. Houghton Mifflin Reading—Medallion Edition gives school districts the opportunity to save vital resources by simply building on the popular and successful Houghton Mifflin Reading California that is used in approximately 80 percent of California school districts. This unique submission is fully aligned to the new requirements of the California standards framework and criteria and is a significant upgrade of the previous program. It features enhanced academic vocabulary development and explicit writing instruction as well as many brand new components, including new electronic versions of the student book and teacher edition and a Technical Skills Toolkit to ensure beginning readers master the important skills that are predictors of future reading success.

The Medallion Edition represents substantial cost savings and enables districts to build on their investment of time, money, resources and professional development. It can often take teachers two to three years to learn a new reading/language arts program. With the adoption of the Medallion Edition, teachers can continue the success they have already been experiencing with Houghton Mifflin Reading.

In addition to Medallion, California Excursions for grades K–6 pairs the latest technological tools for instruction, assessment and improved teaching and learning with comprehensive texts based on real-world research and results. The text and online resources, powered by the ThinkCentral platform, provide program organization and assessment as well as ensuring universal access to a high-quality curriculum and instruction for all students. They provide a high level of support for differentiated instruction and tools and materials to meet the needs of all learners. Finally, they include Intervention and English Language Development components that are built on the growing body of research about how best to help struggling readers and English language learners.

Holt McDougal, the Company's secondary school publishing division, renews its commitment to California with two distinct literature programs for grades 6–8: Holt Literature and Language Arts and McDougal Littell Literature. Both programs emphasize technological support and English language development. They include teaching materials that allow for customized instruction and numerous assessment options including an emphasis on diagnostics, standards mastery and effective instructional support for struggling students. Teachers have the ability to continually diagnose, teach, review and assess to meet the continuing student development. As with all of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's materials, each program is composed of quality literary content, chosen with the goal of reflecting ethnic and gender diversity, age appropriateness, variety and motivational appeal.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's programs also recognize California's diversity and challenges with students who have limited proficiency speaking and writing English. The Company's K–6 offerings all have parallel and equitable Spanish-language editions while the Company's English Language Development System is designed to work with California Excursions and Medallion Edition to help students learn English, while mastering English language arts standards.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt offers two distinct programs, Portals and California Gateways, for intensive intervention. These standalone, intensive, accelerated reading/language arts programs are designed specifically for struggling readers and English learners in grades 4–8 whose academic achievement is two or more years below grade level. Instruction is designed to rapidly increase reading, writing, listening and speaking achievement to prepare students for successful re-entry into the basal programs within two years. This level of progress is made possible through these programs' strong research base, authentic student motivation and unprecedented instructional design. The assessment division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Riverside Publishing, will also be providing the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests as an optional component with the California Gateways. The Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests has a distinguished history of guiding educators in California and across the nation in making reliable placement and program decisions based on scientifically based research.

California Gateways is already being used as a pilot program in one Southern California district, and early results of field tests with this program have shown remarkable, accelerated improvement in students' ability to read, write, and speak English.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is on the leading edge of digital education resources from instructional materials for students to curriculum planning tools for teachers to assessment and evaluation tools that lead to evidence-based interventions. The scope of the Company's commitment to California school districts means that the programs and materials adopted today are designed to work seamlessly with many of the following products already in use by schools across California.

• Learning Village, a K–12 instructional enterprise learning framework that opens up opportunities for educators to integrate all of their content, applications and resources from one central location. Learning Village is a content-agnostic solution that delivers curricula, content and resources in a unified, personalized and relevant environment for teachers, administrators, parents and students—providing a central point for communication, collaboration, teaching and professional development. An introductory version of Learning Village is available through the California reading adoption to promote teaching and learning in ways not previously possible, and empower teachers and administrators to deliver 21st century skills.
• Destination Reading is an interactive software-based instructional program for grades pre-K–8 that inspires educators and students with fresh approaches to reaching reading proficiency. Teacher licenses are available as part of the California reading adoption to acquaint teachers with opportunities to embed interactive instruction into the school day with additional access outside of the classroom to extend the school day. Built on sound pedagogical research, and aligned with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's core basal programs, Destination Reading incorporates successful strategies for personalizing instruction based on a student's skill level, and can be effectively deployed via interactive whiteboards in a whole classroom setting.
• Edusoft^® and Data Director™ are award-winning assessment and data management solutions that are integral parts of improved student achievement throughout California and are already being used in over 443 school districts throughout California. When used in combination with Learning Village, these solutions promote a comprehensive educational experience that enables targeted, individualized, data-driven instruction.
• The Company's assessment division, Riverside Publishing, helps schools and districts manage the student assessment process though a variety of software offerings and online platforms.

"Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's commitment to California has never been stronger," concluded Lucki. "We consider ourselves an important partner with California as we work through these important challenges together."