Virginia High School Teacher Wins $25,000 Cash Prize in Nasdaq National Teaching Awards Competition

Additional Awards of $10,000 Each Presented to Regional Winners From Arkansas, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Minnesota

New York, NY--In ceremonies held last evening at New York's Plaza Hotel, the Nasdaq Stock Market Educational Foundation, Inc. and the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) announced that Diane R. Neylan, a high school teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Richmond, VA, was selected by a distinguished panel of judges as the National Winner of this year's NASDAQ National Teaching Awards competition. Ms. Neylan was one of five previously announced Regional Winners.

"Educating our nation's youth and future leaders on the basics of economics is as important as education in science, English and mathematics," said Richard Ketchum, President and Deputy Chairman, The NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc (NASDAQ). "On behalf of NASDAQ, I'd like to personally commend the teachers recognized today for their dedicated efforts and encourage more teachers within our country to take part in economic literacy that will contribute to the future of our nation's economic backbone."

"Ms. Neylan and all of the regional winners and semi-finalists in this year's NASDAQ National Teaching Awards competition distinguished themselves with extraordinary work in the classroom," said Robert Duvall, President & CEO, NCEE. "Their use of creativity and imagination in blending economic concepts with real world applications is impressive. Through their efforts, more and more students are developing the knowledge and lifelong skills they will need to succeed in today's increasingly complex and competitive world."

For her award-winning unit of instruction, "Ready, Set, Succeed," Ms. Neylan received a cash award of $25,000 (this includes her $10,000 prize for being Southeast Regional Winner). In addition, cash prizes of $10,000 were also presented at the awards gala to each of the four other Regional Winners. Twenty Regional Semi-Finalists previously received $1000 each. These are among the largest education awards given to high school teachers in the U.S.

Ms. Neylan's winning entry is a component of her 11th and 12th grade Economics courses. In this project, the 33-year teaching veteran brings basic economic principles to life by having her students run their own start-up business - this year, a single-product publishing company. Her students formed the company as a private corporation, elected officers and hired students to fill key positions. The company, Kougar Enterprises, named after the school's mascot, produced Kooking with the Kougars, a unique cookbook containing recipes from the governors of nearly every state, Puerto Rico and both of Virginia's U.S. Senators.

Through active learning, made possible by this entrepreneurial business venture, her students discovered how to create, price and market a product and, in the process, learned about such things as budgeting, record-keeping, inventory control, cash management, income tax preparation, and making choices about their scarce resources. Through her "hands-on," learn by doing approach, Ms. Neylan's students gain valuable economics skills that will last a lifetime.

Sharing the evening's honors with Ms. Neylan were the following Regional Award Winners (the titles of their winning entries, and the schools at which they teach, follow their names):

• Northeast - Judith G. Heine, German Hyperflation, Canton High School, Medfield, MA
• Midwest - William D. Mittlefehldt, Competing: Minnesota in the Global Economy, Anoka High School, Anoka, MN
• Southwest - Cynthia Cardwell, Roller Coaster Physics and Economics, Lincoln Junior High School, Bentonville, AR
• West - Joanne Hifumi Ringor, Macroville U.S.A., Governor Wallace Rider Farrington High School, Honolulu, HI

A complete list of the 25 Regional Winners and Semi-Finalists, the titles of their entries, and the names of their high schools is attached to this release. In addition, brief summaries of the Regional Winners' entries can be found on the NCEE web site at www.ncee.net and the Nasdaq Newsroom web site at www.nasdaqnews.com ^SM.

Judges for this year's competition were Alfred R. Berkeley, III, Vice Chairman, NASDAQ; Robert F. Duvall, President and CEO, NCEE; Richard G. Ketchum, President and Deputy Chairman, NASDAQ; Leslie Laroche, NASDAQ Correspondent, CNBC; Harold "Terry" McGraw III, Chairman, President & CEO, The McGraw-Hill Companies; Sasha Salama, Anchor and Correspondent, CNNfn; and Gary Stern, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. and Chairman, NCEE.

The awards, created through a grant of the NASDAQ Educational Foundation to the NCEE, recognize deserving high school teachers for their originality, creativity and effectiveness in furthering students' awareness of the financial markets, the capital formation process, principles of investing, personal finance, entrepreneurship and the operation of market economies.

The NASDAQ Stock Market Educational Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization that is engaged in promoting innovative thinking and learning about the role of capital formation and financial markets in a free enterprise system. Its goals are to further financial markets literacy, ensure new generations of well-informed investors and promote interest in financial careers. The Foundation is fully funded by NASDAQ.

NASDAQ (OTCBB:NDAQ) is the world's largest electronic stock market. With approximately 3,800 companies, NASDAQ lists more companies and trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. Over the past five years, NASDAQ has outpaced all other U.S. markets in listing IPOs. It is home to category-defining companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, media and biotechnology industries. NASDAQ is a key driver of capital formation. For more information about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Web site at www.nasdaq.com or the NASDAQ Newsroom SM at www.nasdaqnews.com. For more information about the NASDAQ-100, visit www.nasdaq-100.com.

NCEE is a non-profit organization that for more than 50 years has been preparing students in grades Kindergarten through 12 to become more knowledgeable consumers, better investors and savers, productive members of the workforce, responsible citizens and effective participants in the global economy. Each year, NCEE and its nationwide network of affiliated state Councils and university-based Centers for Economic Education equip more than 120,000 teachers in over 70,000 schools with comprehensive programs in economics and personal finance that reach more than 7 million students. Through grants from the U.S. Department of Education, NCEE programs have also reached 1.2 million students in 20 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. For more information about NCEE, visit www.ncee.com.