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Decision Partners Invited to Speak at ASCA North Atlantic Region Meeting

Boston - November 14, 2006 - Decision Partners, a non-profit online learning organization focused on financial literacy education, today announced that its CEO, Austin Jackson, and its Vice President of Customer Development, Jim Pfeiffer, will deliver a presentation at the American School Counselor Association’s (ASCA) North Atlantic Region Meeting on November 18.

The presentation, to be delivered to ASCA state division presidents, will review key findings of the 2006-7 Financial Literacy 101 for High School and Financial Literacy 101 for College pilot programs and will offer suggestions on how Decision Partners can help counselors further prepare students for the financial challenges of higher education.

“The ASCA and their state region divisions have been terrific supporters of Decision Partners and our student aid and financial literacy education efforts,” said Austin Jackson, CEO of Decision Partners. “We welcome the opportunity to discuss these important issues with the leaders who can help make financial education a priority in their respective states.”

As an online program taken by students and parents, Financial Literacy 101 is ideal for helping school counselors extend their student success efforts by leveraging the one-to-one educational potential of the Internet. The courses require no in-person instruction and they address many typical concerns voiced by parents and students, including the costs and benefits of college, the financial aid application process, and navigating the challenges involved in safely transitioning to the unsupervised financial life of college and beyond.

“Decision Partners’ online personal finance program fits perfectly into the American School Counselor Association National Model,” said Jan Tkaczyk, Executive Director of the Massachusetts School Counselor Association. “They have gathered the data that demonstrates program effectiveness in teaching students and their parents about post high school finances; specifically those relating to college costs. Innovative partnerships with local civic organizations/scholarship donors will provide a collaborative effort to insure that both these donations are well spent and that school counselors are providing a results-based curriculum for their high school students.”

School counselors using Decision Partners programs simply distribute an access code to students and parents to enable access to the courses. Decision Partners provides handouts to be distributed in homerooms, aid offices, school assemblies, financial aid nights, or at any other school event. By educating students and parents about important financial topics, Decision Partners helps counselors better prepare students for college without requiring without requiring additional budgetary or staffing resources.

Decision Partners offers two online courses – Financial Literacy 101 for High School, covering financial topics related to paying for college, and StudendAid.com for College, covering financial literacy topics for graduating seniors and college students. Each course takes about an hour to complete and uses an interactive, personalized multimedia format to better communicate with the “Digital Generation.” Each course also includes a graded final exam to measure learning gains and to enable students to qualify for incentive programs such as a Decision Partners-funded college scholarship. Teachers may also integrate the course into the classroom or assign it as homework.

For more information on the course, please visit http://www.decisionpartners.org or call Jim Pfeiffer, VP of Customer Development, at (978) 562-1390.