MetaMetrics CEO Featured Speaker at 2007 International Reading Association Conference in Toronto

MetaMetrics CEO Featured Speaker at 2007 International Reading Association Conference in Toronto

A. Jackson Stenner to Discuss Connection Between Reading and Writing at May 13–17 Meeting

DURHAM, N.C. — May 8, 2007 — A. Jackson Stenner, Ph.D., chairman and chief executive officer, MetaMetrics® Inc., is a featured speaker at the 2007 International Reading Association (IRA) Conference, May 13–17. Stenner’s session, “The Reading/Writeability Connection,” will be moderated by Andrea Kotula, editor of the “Readability-Accessibility” newsletter, published by IRA’s Readability Interest Group. More than 15,000 educators from all over the world will convene in Toronto for this annual meeting of literacy educators.

One of the world’s foremost psychometricians, Stenner has published widely on statistical and evaluation methodology. A co-founder of MetaMetrics, Stenner was also a co-principal investigator on the development of The Lexile Framework® for Reading and its companion scale, The Quantile Framework® for Mathematics. The Lexile Framework provides a common, developmental scale for matching reader ability and text difficulty. The Quantile Framework uses a common, developmental scale to measure student mathematics achievement, the difficulty of mathematical skills and concepts, and tools for building mathematics skills.

Stenner is currently leading the development of The Lexile Framework for Writing, which will allow educators and parents to monitor growth in students’ writing abilities on a developmental scale and to provide targeted writing activities to foster continued development. He will discuss this new measurement scale in his presentation on May 15, from 10:30–10:45 a.m., in the Metro Toronto Convention Center, South 706.

Stenner will also be a featured keynote speaker at the 2007 Lexile National Reading Conference, June 18–20, at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Fla. The theme for the conference, now in its fourth year, is “Reading Beyond the Classroom.”

In addition to Stenner, the conference will feature eight other prominent keynote speakers, including Quality Quinn, author and international literacy consultant; Mel Riddile, Ed.D., 2006 MetLife/National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) High School Principal of the Year; Timothy Shanahan, Ph.D., IRA president and professor of urban education and director of the center for literacy, University of Illinois at Chicago; Malbert Smith III, Ph.D., president, MetaMetrics; Joseph Torgesen, Ph.D., director, Florida Center for Reading Research; Jim Warford, executive director, Florida Association of School Administrators (FASA); Tom Welch, consultant; and Clayton Wilcox, Ph.D., superintendent, Pinellas County Schools, Fla. To register or for more information, visit www.lexile.com/conference2007.

About MetaMetrics Inc.

MetaMetrics, a privately held educational measurement company, develops scientifically based measures of student achievement that link assessment with instruction, foster better educational practices and improve learning by matching students to materials that meet and challenge their abilities. The company’s team of experienced psychometricians developed The Lexile Framework for Reading and its companion scale, The Quantile Framework for Mathematics. The Lexile Framework (www.Lexile.com) provides a common, developmental scale for matching reader ability and text difficulty. Lexile® measures enable educators, parents and students to select targeted materials that can improve reading skills and to monitor reading growth across the curriculum, in the library and at home. Recognized as the most widely adopted reading measure, Lexiles are part of reading and testing programs in the classroom and at the district and state levels. More than 100,000 books, 80 million articles and 60,000 Web sites have Lexile measures, and all major standardized tests can report student reading scores in Lexiles. The Quantile Framework (www.Quantiles.com) measures mathematics achievement and the difficulty of mathematical skills and problems similar to the way Lexiles measure reading ability and text readability. Quantiles® identify the mathematical skills a student has learned, those that require instruction and new skills the student is ready to learn, enabling educators to use Quantile measures to target instruction, monitor student progress and forecast performance on high-stakes tests.