Illuminate Education Inc.

Illuminate Education, Inc. Announces Version 2.0 for Illuminate Student Information and Illuminate Special Education Systems Next Generation Products to Be Unveiled at California Educational Technology Professionals Association (CETPA)

CORONA, CA – (November 16, 2009) – Illuminate Education, Inc. announced the release of Version 2.0 for Illuminate Student InformationTM (formerly known as Iris) and Illuminate Special EducationTM (formerly known as Focus) at the California Educational Technology Professionals Association (CETPA). Each product offers a new user interface with multiple enhancements (including a gradebook and parent portal) based on extensive user input.

Illuminate Student InformationTM is a next generation Student Information System (SIS) that provides administrators and educators with a single web-based point of access to student demographics, attendance, schedules, discipline, grades, assessment history, state reporting mandates, and more. Illuminate Special EducationTM is a web-based Special Education Management System that centralizes and streamlines all requirements and regulations for Individual Education Program (IEP) forms, referral process, evaluation process, encounter tracking, Medicaid, and student data management.

Illuminate Education CEO/President Lane Rankin (founder of Achieve Data Solutions and creator of DataDirectorTM) noted, “Through the use of Web 2.0 technologies, both products now have inline editing, dynamic tables, enhanced data validation, and reduced clicks to get you where you need to go faster than ever). This means less scrolling, and the dynamic tables let you ‘drag and drop’ columns to analyze data in a web browser like never before.”

The systems now feature a gradebook. Designed “by teachers for teachers” and completely web-based, the gradebook makes extensive use of Web 2.0 technologies to supply the look and feel of a desktop application while allowing teachers to enter and analyze grade data anywhere with Internet access. The user-friendly interface makes it simple to enter grades and print reports, and its graphical views clarify classroom and student progress in one click.

Also included is a parent portal that offers quick and easy access to student information. As simple to use as Google or Yahoo, it allows parents to view students’ grades, attendance, assignments, assessment data, and more from a graphical, user-friendly dashboard.

Rufus Thompson, Technology Coordinator at Mountain View School District, commented, “The new versions of Illuminate Student Information and Illuminate Special Education are elegant, groundbreaking systems. Version 2.0 makes other SIS and SES products look old and clunky. Illuminate really is changing the face of education through technology.”Press Contact:

Lane Rankin info@illuminateed.com 951-739-0186

About Illuminate Education, Inc.

Illuminate Education serves the K-12 educational market with innovative web-based products and services. An educator perspective drives all of Illuminate’s technology solutions, which are designed to maximize efficiency, incorporate user-friendly interfaces, and support practical and progressive needs at the county, district, site, classroom, parent and student levels. Illuminate’s groundbreaking products are Illuminate Student Information (formerly Iris) and Illuminate Special Education (formerly Focus). Additional information can be found at www.IlluminateEducation.com or by calling 951-739-0186.

CEO/President Lane Rankin Launches Illuminate Education, Inc.

Former DataDirector™ founder “reacquires” core products and broadens vision for data-driven education

CORONA, CA—(July 27, 2009)—CEO/President Lane Rankin has announced the launch of Illuminate Education, Inc. to provide next generation web-based software and services to the K-12 market. The former founder of Achieve Data Solutions (ADS) and its products DataDirector, Iris™ and Focus™, Rankin further announced the repurchase of Iris and Focus from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  ADS was sold to Harcourt Education in 2007, which in turn was acquired by Houghton Mifflin later that same year. The two dynamic products and their respective customer bases are now reunited with their original founders.

“Illuminate Education is picking up where Achieve Data Solutions left off and continuing the vision of centralized data and information to support all aspects of the education process, eliminating the need for multiple systems,” said Mr. Rankin. “This will revolutionize the way information is used in education – by students, parents, office staff, teachers, and administrators.”

Iris, affordable and easy to use, breaks the student information system (SIS) mold. While it does everything a traditional SIS can do, Iris provides all the information and tools educators and office staff need to operate and progress in the current high stakes environment. Iris is already in place at a number of school districts.  It features a single web-based point of access to demographics, attendance, and schedules, as well as discipline, grades, assessment data, state reporting mandates, and much more. By meeting the reporting demands of large complex sets of information as well as the needs of individual instructional goals, Iris supports data-driven decisions at the county, district, site, and classroom levels.

The other “reacquired” product is Focus. While Iris breaks the SIS mold, Focus does the same for special education systems. For example, most systems provide a “form fill” approach to Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). Focus, however, leads educators through the IEP process with a step-by-step wizard that incorporates all available data and ensures compliance.  In addition, Focus handles all aspects of managing a Special Education student’s needs. Developed with Calhoun ISD in Marshall, Michigan, this standards based system allows educators to have meaningful conversations with students, parents, and other stakeholders.  Either integrating with Iris or working alone, Focus helps create and report on student evaluations, manage referrals, track and report student progress toward IEP goals, log caseload encounter information, and collect billing information for appropriate Medicaid eligible encounters.

“As a company of educators who are also technology experts, Lane and the team at Illuminate Education look at things differently than a technology company might,” said Mike Oswalt, Assistant Superintendent of Regional Technology Services at Calhoun ISD. “They work closely with us to understand the needs, develop a possible course of action, and then push past that to develop a collaboratively created solution—a solution that will work for everyone, not just a single district.”

With a pre-existing reputation for educator-friendly interfaces, expert customer support, and 99.9% client retention rate, several of the founders and original staff from Achieve Data Solutions are joining Mr. Rankin at Illuminate Education.  Having previously developed solutions that are still in use at over 450 districts, the Illuminate Education team plans to eclipse its former successes and unlock the potential of data-driven decision making for everyone trying to close the achievement gap.

For more information on Illuminate Education, please visit www.IlluminateEducation.com or call 951-739-0186.

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Press Contact:
Lane Rankin
info@illuminateed.com
951-739-0186

About Illuminate Education
Illuminate serves the K-12 educational market with innovative web based products and services.  An educator perspective drives all of Illuminate’s technology solutions, which are thus designed to maximize efficiency, incorporate user-friendly interfaces, and support practical and progressive needs at the county, district, site, classroom, parent, and student levels.  Illuminate’s groundbreaking products are Iris and Focus.  Additional information can be found at www.IlluminateEducation.com or by calling 951-739-0186.