New Century Education’s earliest “Interactive Learning Systems” utilized workbooks and coordinated audio tapes to provide structured individualized learning in math and reading. Under a visionary, Charles Walther, New Century began development of computer based instruction in the early 1980s in order to more efficiently administer the Instructional System model and to apply the knowledge gained from the company’s research. New Century’s diagnostic-prescriptive model was developed at this time guided by Dr. John Carroll, a Senior Researcher with Educational Testing Service. The diagnostic tests, first developed to assess reading skills, were designed to seamlessly link initial results to prescribed New Century learning objectives and lessons, and to tests that confirm a student’s mastery of those objectives.