Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Standardizes

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Standardizes on Business Objects

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers/Education Writers

    SAN JOSE, Calif. & PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 15, 2005--

Agency Uses Crystal Reports to Analyze Student Performance and Comply with State and National Education Policies
    Public schools are under increasing pressure from both state and national legislators to measure, report, and improve student performance. To meet these challenges, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) uses Crystal Reports(R) from Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ)(Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions. Crystal Reports gives Missouri educators immediate access to current academic performance data and enables educators to analyze information quickly, develop strategies to bolster student achievement, and comply with state and federal mandates.
    Missouri school districts are evaluated and accredited by state education officials once every five years. School districts also must comply with federal requirements included in the No Child Left Behind Act. Missouri DESE is the state agency responsible for 524 school districts and approximately 900,000 public school students in preschool through grade 12. Using Crystal Reports, the Missouri DESE can aggregate data at the district and state levels or drill down to the school, classroom, or individual student level. Crystal Reports provides administrators with reports that measure student performance and enables them to perform trend analysis.
    "Crystal Reports has improved our ability to turn around information quickly and use it to improve both student performance and operational efficiency," said Dr. Bert Schulte, deputy commissioner of the Missouri DESE. "Now we have a better way to examine how our students perform on state assessments. Administrators can do trend analysis on data that go back as far as 1997, whereas before our analytic capabilities and access to information were more limited. Crystal Reports is rather easy to use, and it provides useful information for local schools."
    The Missouri DESE is also using Business Objects to track, understand, and manage data on Missouri educators and the classes they teach. Administrators use this data to ensure that teachers are instructing classes that best match their qualifications. Superintendents, principals, and teachers also rely on this data to develop curriculum, inform instructional planning meetings, and solve potential problems.
    Currently, more than 4,000 Missouri school district personnel are using Crystal Reports to evaluate student performance. Principals, superintendents, teachers, and other administrators use the reports and have varying levels of access to information according to their position with their organization. Employees can easily access information online and do reports from home or in the classroom and then distribute them via the web. Crystal Reports is intuitive to use and users do not need to rely on IT, which has improved productivity.
    "Given the reality of reduced funding and increased accountability, public schools today need to be more focused than ever on their students' performance, and develop long-term strategies for maintaining high academic standards," said Jay Johnson, vice president of Government for Business Objects. "Business Objects understands this challenge and is committed to providing state and local governments with full visibility into their schools' performance. Using Business Objects, everyone from superintendents to teachers can access the information required to help their students succeed."

    Business Objects: Improving Performance in State & Local Government

    Business Objects is a leading provider of business intelligence (BI) software to state and local governments across the United States. BI improves the ability of government agencies to manage budgets, cases, procurement, and human resources, as well as financial and operational performance. Business Objects and its partners are helping state and local governments improve the effectiveness of their tax and revenue administrators. States use business intelligence software to improve the performance and accountability of Medicaid and other human services programs. Education professionals use BI to acquire and distribute the information they need to support instruction, including the ability to measure, track, report, and manage new K-12 performance mandates.
    For more information about Business Objects business intelligence solutions for the government, please visit: http://www.businessobjects.com/govt/.

    About Business Objects

    Business Objects is the world's leading business intelligence (BI) software company. With more than 30,000 customers worldwide, including over 80 percent of the Fortune 500, Business Objects helps organizations gain better insight into their business, improve decision making, and optimize enterprise performance. The company's business intelligence platform, BusinessObjects(TM) XI, offers the BI industry's most complete and trusted platform for reporting, query and analysis, performance management, and data integration. BusinessObjects XI includes Crystal Reports(R), the industry standard for enterprise reporting. Business Objects has also built the industry's strongest and most diverse partner community, with more than 3,000 partners worldwide. In addition, the company offers consulting and education services to help customers effectively deploy their business intelligence projects.
    Business Objects has dual headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and Paris, France. The company's stock is traded on both the Nasdaq (BOBJ) and Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0004026250 -- BOB) stock exchanges. More information about Business Objects can be found at www.businessobjects.com.

    Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, WebIntelligence, Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Analysis, RapidMarts, and BusinessQuery are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects S.A. or its affiliated companies in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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CONTACT: Business Objects Robin Meyerhoff, 408/943-6714 robin.meyerhoff@businessobjects.com or Eastwick Communications Katie Zack, 650/480-4041 katie@eastwick.com

KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA MISSOURI FRANCE INTERNATIONAL EUROPE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: EDUCATION SOFTWARE PRODUCT SOURCE: Business Objects

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