University of California College Prep Initiative and Blackboard Announce Statewide Partnership

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 20, 2003--

Partnership will expand online learning opportunities for K-12 students across the State of California

“UCCP has effectively pursued its mission of providing all high school students in the state of California, regardless of their location or means, with the learning opportunities and support they need to successfully continue their studies in higher education”

Blackboard Inc., a leading enterprise software and services company for e-Education, has announced a partnership with the University of California College Prep Initiative (UCCP), a program delivering online courses, curriculum and support services for high school students across the State of California.

UCCP, which was founded by the Regents of the University of California, has committed to using the full Blackboard Learning Suite(TM), which includes the Blackboard Learning System(TM), Blackboard Portal System(TM) and Blackboard Content System(TM) as part of its efforts to maximize access to high quality learning opportunities across California's diverse K-12 student population. Blackboard will also provide support and integration services to UCCP's locally hosted Blackboard(R) installation, which will take advantage of California's Internet 2 infrastructure.

"We expect this partnership to significantly increase the opportunities for California students to gain access to a college preparatory curriculum," said Francisco J. Hernandez, Executive Director of UCCP and Board member of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL).

As part of the partnership, UCCP plans to grow its existing Advanced Placement and Honors level online course offerings in areas such as Physics, Spanish and Environmental Science to include a wide variety of curricular options to thousands of students across the state that lack access to these opportunities within their local high school or district.

In a further effort to maximize access to its leading edge curriculum, UCCP will bring its Classroom Learning Kit program (CLK) online with Blackboard. Under the partnership, teachers around the state will be able to utilize UCCP CLK digital curriculum as well as Blackboard's suite of instructional tools to further enhance daily teaching and learning in their classrooms. Blackboard and UCCP also plan to collaborate on future technologies of specific benefit of K-12 online learning.

"UCCP has effectively pursued its mission of providing all high school students in the state of California, regardless of their location or means, with the learning opportunities and support they need to successfully continue their studies in higher education," said Matthew Pittinsky, Blackboard's Chairman. "As a company dedicated to transforming K-12 education through technology, Blackboard is excited to collaborate with UCCP as it continues to innovate and extend the boundaries of how and where California's children can learn."

Today's announcement builds upon Blackboard's existing commitment to the California education community. Over 20 school districts and county offices of education along with 90 institutions of higher education across the state currently utilize the Blackboard platform to power daily teaching and learning - online and in the classroom. Earlier last month, the California State University System announced its intent to adopt Blackboard across all 23 of its campuses.

About Blackboard Inc.(R)

Blackboard Inc. was founded with a vision to transform the Internet into a powerful environment for the education experience. Blackboard is a leading provider of e-Education solutions serving the global needs of primary and secondary schools, higher education, corporations and government agencies. The company serves dozens of K-12 virtual schools across the U.S. as well as school districts and education service agencies in 43 states. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices and staff across North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Please visit www.blackboard.com for more information.

About UCCP

Founded in 1999, the UC College Prep Initiative (UCCP) was created in response to a state mandate to provide equity in access to rigorous college preparatory curriculum. The mission of UCCP is to provide online courses to high school students who otherwise would not have the opportunity to achieve eligibility for admission to the University of California (UC), California State University system, and other top universities. Based at UC Santa Cruz, UCCP is an academic initiative of the university that develops media-rich online courses that are optimized for Internet 2. In addition, the initiative provides test prep and academic support free of charge to students and teachers from eligible schools and provides professional development to teachers through an annual summer institute. More information about UCCP is available at http://www.uccp.org.