District, Company Put Reading Tool on the Market

A suburban Washington school district has joined forces with a company that provides hand-held computer-based systems that teachers can use to assess their students’ reading skills. Both contributed to a new K-3 reading-assessment product that will be marketed to schools nationwide.

If the product lives up to the company’s sales projections, the district could reap royalties from the enterprise in the “seven figures” within three years, school officials said.

The 140,000-student Montgomery County, Md., district has contributed its own paper-and-pencil reading-assessment tool for the business venture. The district’s elementary teachers have used that assessment for about four years, according to John Q. Porter, the district’s deputy superintendent for...