1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

1920s1920M.R. “Robbie” Robinson founds Scholastic Publishing Company in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Western Pennsylvania Scholastic, covering high school sports, debuts on October 22 and is the company's first publication. Today, Scholastic publishes more than 30 classroom magazines for students around the world. 1922 The Scholastic, a national magazine with literature and social commentary for high school English and history classes, is launched. The Scholastic was designed to bring the world into the classroom — an ongoing mission throughout the decades for all Scholastic classroom magazines. 1923 The Scholastic Writing Awards program for high school students is launched as part of The Scholastic magazine. Winners have included Richard Avedon, Frances Farmer, Bernard Malamud, Joyce Carol Oates, Sylvia Plath, and Robert Redford. The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, now administered by the non-profit Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, Inc., Is the largest, longest-running, and most generous awards programs in the U.S. Annually, it receives 250,000 submissions, and since 1923 has provided more than $25 million in cash awards and college scholarships. 1925 The Scholastic Art Awards program for high school students debuts. Winners have included Philip Pearlstein, Robert McCloskey, and Andy Warhol. 1926 Scholastic publishes its first book: Saplings, a collection of the best student writing from the winners of the Scholastic Writing Awards. Today, Scholastic is the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books.

1930s 1931 Scholastic Coach™, a magazine for high school and college athletic directors, launches. Today, the renamed Coach and Athletic Director is Scholastic's oldest and longest continually published magazine. 1937 Junior Scholastic™, for junior high school social studies, debuts, chronicling the end of the Depression and the coming of WW II. 2007 marks the 70th Anniversary of Junior Scholastic, the major secondary school publication for up-to-the-minute information on world events.

1948 Scholastic enters the school book club business with T.A.B., Teen Age Book Club™ in response to the new availability of paperbacks. The Scarlet Letter, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and the Good Earth are among the first titles offered for 25 cents. Today Scholastic operates the largest school book club business in the United States — with six core school-based book clubs serving preschool through junior high school students — offers clubs in Argentina, Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, and the U.K. Scholastic publishes Literary Cavalcade™ a classroom magazine dedicated to literature for high school English classes. In 2005, in its 57th year, Literary Cavalcade™ ceased publication as a print magazine and was incorporated into the www.scholastic.com WriteIt web site.

1950s 1952 Scholastic launches its first elementary school magazine, News time, for fifth and sixth grade students. A full line of classroom magazines for grades 1–6 follows eight years later. 1957 Scholastic establishes its first international subsidiary, Scholastic Canada. Other wholly owned subsidiaries include the United Kingdom (1964), New Zealand (1964), Australia (1968), Mexico (1994), India (1997), and Hong Kong (1998).

1960s1962 Scholastic's Lucky Book Club™ offers Norman Bridwell's Clifford the Big Red Dog®. There are now more than 70 Clifford the Big Red Dog titles with 80 million copies in print. The book series also has generated two children's television series, Clifford® the Big Red Dog, and Clifford’s Puppy Days®. 1964 Scholastic Scope® a magazine for struggling readers, debuts. By the 1970s its circulation reaches 1.4 million — then Scholastic's largest magazine. Scope continues to be one of the company's most popular magazines presenting high interest reading material spanning a range of abilities. 1968 Scholastic opens the Jefferson City, Missouri facility to fulfill book club orders. Now, the Scholastic National Service Organization provides customer service, warehousing, packing, order fulfillment, and accounts receivable functions for all of Scholastic businesses with the exception of Scholastic Book Fairs. These activities are conducted by more than 2,000 employees in 1,500,000 square feet of warehouse and office space with state-of-the-art facilities located in Jefferson City, Neosho, and Moberly, Missouri, and Maumelle, Arkansas. Scholastic is the largest private employer in Jefferson City.

1970s 1974 “Dick” Robinson, son of founder M.R. Robinson, becomes President of Scholastic Inc. He is named Chief Executive Officer in 1975 and Chairman in 1982. Under his leadership, Scholastic has become the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, and a leading developer of educational technology. The company also expanded into the instructional materials market as well as into television, feature film, video, computer software, and online services. 1978 Scholastic Productions is formed to extend the company’s franchises across multiple media. The division develops and produces children's television series, feature films, home videos, and multimedia products. Today, the renamed Scholastic Media is a leading producer of quality children's programming and multimedia, and a major licenser and marketer of children's entertainment properties worldwide.

1980s 1981 Scholastic enters the school-based Book Fair business with the acquisition of California School Book Fairs. It gains a national presence two years later when it acquires Great American Book Fairs. Today, Scholastic Book Fairs is the largest children's book fair operation in the United States and also has operations in Argentina, Australia, Canada, India, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, and the U.K. 1986 The Magic School Bus® book series, written by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen, debuts with the publication of its first hardcover title, The Magic School Bus® at the Waterworks. Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® now has 131 titles and more than 58 million books in print. Both a critical and commercial success for more than 20 years, the books appear regularly on best-seller lists and earn numerous awards and honors. Scholastic also publishes all of the hardcover titles in paperback, as well as a series of special TV tie-in books and Spanish-language versions. The phenomenal success of the series has been the driving force behind countless other series-inspired vehicles. The Baby-sitters Club® book series by Ann Martin debuts and goes on to become one of the most enduring children's book series of all time. The book series continues to be a best-seller, with 335 books published and more than 172 million books in print and 12 new titles published each year. It grew into a television series, home videos, CD-Roms and other consumer products, a web site, a fan club, and a series of graphic adaptations of the novels from the Scholastic Graphix imprint.

Scholastic launches Pre-K Today, (now Scholastic Early Childhood Today™) the first magazine for early childhood professionals. Scholastic Early Childhood Today is considered the preeminent magazine for early childhood educators. 1989 Scholastic establishes the Professional Publishing division to focus on the needs of K-8 educators and the professional development market. Today, the division is an integral component of the Scholastic Education Group, publishing more than 110 new titles each year, including books geared to early childhood educators, at-risk learners and professional development. Scholastic acquires Instructor Magazine. Founded in 1891, it is the oldest and largest professional magazine for America's elementary classroom teachers. Instructor has kept educators up-to-date on the most current thinking and best practices in education, enabling them to translate knowledge about how children learn into effective classroom practices.

1992 The Goosebumps® series of books written by R.L. Stine debuts. Goosebumps has become the #1 best-selling children's book series of all time, with over 167 titles and more than 220 million books in print. Scholastic Science Place®, widely considered one of the most effective science curriculum programs, is produced in partnership with 42 science museums.

1993 Scholastic Parent & Child® magazine debuts. It is created especially for parents of young children attending child care, pre-kindergarten, and kindergarten programs. Written and edited by experts in the field of early childhood — a collaboration of parents, teachers, and the professional early childhood community — Scholastic Parent&Child® is an invaluable resource for parents. It is considered the preeminent learning link between home and school. Scholastic Network, the first online service for teachers and students, launches on America-on-Line. The Network re-launched on the World Wide Web in 1996, and ultimately became part of teacher.scholastic.com, a premiere online source of curriculum content, teacher resources, and interactive activities that connect educators and students in the U.S. and abroad. The United Kingdom based Mary Glasgow line of foreign-language study magazines is acquired. Titles are in English, French, German, and Spanish. Mary Glasgow Magazines today publishes magazines and software for over one million language learners in 25 countries.

1994 Wiggleworks®, a multimedia based beginning literacy system, launches. According to a Harvard University study on the program, Wiggleworks® significantly raises reading scores.

David Kirk introduces Miss Spider in Miss Spider's Tea Party. Now with 8 titles and over 2 million copies in print, Miss Spider has become a favorite character for children and adults.

Based on the book series, Scholastic's The Magic School Bus®, the first animated science and adventure series, premieres as a weekly TV series. The show has won more than a dozen awards, including a Daytime Emmy Award. It has been recognized by the magazines TV GUIDE, Parenting Magazine and Entertainment Weekly as “one of the top ten” kids shows. The show has several community partnerships and Scholastic has developed a traveling museum exhibit with a consortium of children's museums, along with live Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Theatre and Mall Traveling Shows.

1995 Goosebumps® debuts as a television series, based on the mega-successful R.L. Stine books. In its second season the Goosebumps series was one of the top-rated children's programs on television and a recipient of the “Best Children's Video of the Year” Award from the Video Software Dealers Association. The line now includes 13 titles. Scholastic sponsors The National Teacher of the Year program conducted in partnership with the Chief State School Officers. Founded in 1953, it is the oldest and most prestigious program recognizing teacher excellence.

Scholastic co-produces the critically-acclaimed movie Indian in the Cupboard, which was released by Paramount Pictures.

1996 Scholastic acquires Lectorum, the largest distributor of adult and children’s Spanish-language books in the United States.

Weston Woods, the principal innovator in the translation of picture books to audio visual media, becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Scholastic Inc.

Scholastic acquires Red House Ltd., a leading UK distributor of children's books to the school and home markets. With this acquisition Scholastic becomes the largest children's book publisher and distributor in the UK.

1997 The first book in the Captain Underpants series is published. By 2006, the series, written by Dav Pilkey, had grown to 8 titles, with more than 38 million copies in print. Oprah Winfrey names the first three books in Bill Cosby's Little Bill series, published under the Scholastic Cartwheel Books imprint, as the first children's book selection for Oprah's Book Club.”

Scholastic Productions receives the prestigious 1997 LIMA (Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association) award for “Licensing Agency of the Year,” and Goosebumps was named “License of the Year.”

Scholastic opens an office in India to distribute and publish books in English and Indian languages.

1998 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first book in J.K. Rowling’s seven-volume series, is published by Scholastic in the U.S. in September.

Scholastic Entertainment begins production on two new series: Animorphs®, a half-hour, live-action, adventure series for kids 7–13 and Dear America a six-part series airing on HBO.

Author Karen Hesse wins the first Scholastic Newbery Medal for her book Out of the Dust. The book also receives the Scott O'Dell Award for historical fiction, as well as many other honors and distinctions.

Scholastic Press receives its first Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award for Christopher Myers's illustrations in Harlem, written by Walter Dean Myers.

The Scholastic book I Have A Dream receives the 29th NAACP Image award for Outstanding Children's Literary Work. I Have A Dream is the first illustrated edition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s seminal speech made during the 1963 march on Washington. The NAACP Image Awards are given annually in recognition of the positive portrayal and accomplishments of African-Americans in motion pictures, television, literature and reading.

Scholastic opens an office in Hong Kong to better serve the Company's fast growing customer base in the Asia/Pacific region.

1999 Scholastic launches Scholastic READ 180®, a research- and technology-based, reading intervention program, consisting of highly sophisticated, motivating software and books, and exemplary pedagogy. Developed for struggling students in grades 4 and above, the program is designed to increase reading achievement and help students “do a 180” for reading success. READ 180 is currently in use in more than 10,000 schools in the U.S. Research repeatedly shows that students using READ 180 make significant gains in reading achievement scores, confirming that even students who have reached high school age without learning to read can have a chance at success with READ 180. In 2001, educational technology revenue at Scholastic was close to $20 million. By fiscal 2006 educational technology revenue was more than $140 million, a figure that is expected to continue to grow. Scholastic introduces Scholastic Reading Counts!, an interactive reading motivation and management program for students in grades K-12.

Scholastic agrees to co-publish with The New York Times a news magazine for teenagers. The New York Times Upfront features articles on news and politics, including stories of particular interest to teens. The magazine is available through in-school and at-home subscriptions.

Read For 1999, a global read-a-thon, is launched by Scholastic Book Clubs. By any measure, the read-a-thon is a unqualified global success. By 2006, 35,000 schools, libraries and classrooms in 59 countries participated, an increase of more than 40 percent over the previous year. Scholastic acquires QED, a leading educational information company which sells exclusive school databases, school demographic data, and research and database marketing services.

2000 Scholastic launches Read XL, a program to help struggling older readers with high-interest texts that draw students in to reading.

Scholastic acquires Grolier Inc. a global leader in direct-to-home children's book distribution.

Scholastic and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the third book in the series, break all publishing sales records on first week of sales.

Scholastic and ePals classroom exchange announce agreement connecting global classrooms in 182 countries.

Scholastic Entertainment Inc. brings Clifford The Big Red Dog® animated series to PBS.

2001 Scholastic opens its first ever retail store in SoHo, New York. The Scholastic Store, the “fun, smart place” is a must-visit retail destination for all children, New York families, and tourists from around the world. It is a place where the energy and curiosity of its customers is reflected in an upbeat, fun, learning store, which carries Scholastic books, videos, CD-ROMS, multimedia, and plush toys as well as sets of books for parents, kids, and teachers. In 2004, Scholastic opened another store in Scarsdale, New York. Scholastic Administr@tor Magazine launches. The magazine’s mission is to help school administrators and education technology leaders improve the integration, use, and advancement of technology in their schools. Scholastic Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Richard Robinson is honored by the Association of Educational Publishers with prestigious Hall of Fame Award.

Scholastic acquires Tom Snyder Productions from Canadian publisher Torstar Corporation.

2002 COOL, Club Ordering OnLine, is introduced on scholastic.com. The new web-based system improves customer service and enables customers to order and pay for books and track order status online.

Scholastic acquires innovative children's publisher, Klutz.

Scholastic launches online store exclusively for teachers, The Teacher Store at Scholastic.com.

Scholastic launches an online and onsite professional development program, Scholastic Red, to improve teacher practice and raise student achievement in reading.

Nelson B. Heller Associates, a leading business-to-business publisher of educational market newsletters and market research such as The Heller Reports, joins Scholastic.

Scholastic announces the grand opening of a new and exciting online store for families, The Scholastic Store Online, which offers parents and families the opportunity to purchase the Scholastic merchandise their kids know and love, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Scholastic Entertainment produces the highly acclaimed, award-winning children's property, I Spy, as a TV series for Fall 2002 on HBO Family.

Scholastic and DreamWorks forge a strategic alliance, making Scholastic the primary publishing licensee for DreamWorks' animated feature films. This agreement gives Scholastic the rights to publish all coloring and activity books for DreamWorks' next five animated films, including Shrek 2.

2003 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix breaks publishing records by selling 5 million copies in 24 hours, and 11 million copies in its first 12 weeks.

Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® joins The Learning Channel's (TLC) “Ready Set Learn!” preschool programming block.

Scholastic Chairman, President, and CEO Dick Robinson is presented with The British American Business 2003 U.S. Entrepreneurial Award, honoring chief executives for their contribution to transatlantic business.

2004 Scholastic Entertainment releases Clifford's Really Big Movie, an animated feature based on the classic children's book.

Scholastic makes Fortune's “America's Most Admired Companies” list.

Maya & Miguel™ debut on PBS Kids Go. The series is the centerpiece of a multicultural media initiative for all children, with a special emphasis on the growing Hispanic population. Scholastic Entertainment has since produced 65 half-hour episodes of the show.

Scholastic announces major publishing deal with the LEGO Company, one of the world's largest and most innovative toy companies. Scholastic will have rights to publish a wide range of formats based on LEGO-owned intellectual properties, throughout the world. Scholastic has acquired world English rights.

Scholastic announces the launch of new graphic novel imprint, Graphix.

Encyclopedia Americana, a Scholastic publication and the first general encyclopedia published in North America, celebrates 175 years of keeping students “in the know.”

Scholastic joins with NBC-Universal for “Democracy Plaza,” a 17-day outdoor exhibition in New York City's Rockefeller Plaza to celebrate democracy, citizenship and the electoral process from October 20 – November 2, 2004. As the education partner, Scholastic hosts the kids exhibit, Scholastic Democracy for Kids, which provides children with an interactive, educational experience to help them learn about their rights and responsibilities in a democracy.

Scholastic supports hurricane-damaged communities with book donations for schools and families in the nation's southeast region.

Scholastic opens a brand-new "experiential retail" store, located at 450 Central Park Avenue in Scarsdale, NY. The Scholastic Store™ is a 5,000+ square foot state-of-the-art retail destination that combines fun and learning all under one roof.

Scholastic Book Clubs ClassroomsCare, a philanthropy-based literacy initiative, sets a record — over 200,000 classrooms nationwide participate by reading 100 books each. For each classroom that participates, Scholastic donates new books to disadvantaged children. Up to one million books annually are donated through the initiative.

2005 Scholastic's Weston Woods Studios is honored by American Library Association with the prestigious 2005 Andrew Carnegie medal for its adaptation of The Dot.

Scholastic.com launches Flashlight Readers, an online club for kids who love books, that provides children, parents, and teachers with interactive opportunities to share books and reinforce reading skills at scholastic.com/flashlight.

Scholastic receives the Pinnacle Award for Outstanding Corporate Facility for its worldwide headquarters in New York City.

Scholastic announces the acquisition of UK-based Chicken House Publishing Ltd.

Scholastic Library Publishing launches Encyclopedia Latina, the first comprehensive reference to chronicle Latino contributions to United States history and culture.

Scholastic launches Write It, the publishing home for student writers in grades 7-12. The site features a range of instructional and motivational tools such as immediate access to feedback and multi-media interactions with texts, to support students and teachers throughout every step of the writing, editing and publishing process.

Scholastic.com wins the 2005 Best of the Web Award, presented by WiredKids.

Scholastic Library Publishing announces the debut of the new and enhanced Grolier Online®, offering a brand new look and more robust search functionality. The interactive site is designed to help students with research and research skills, and provides teachers and librarians with the teaching and research tools that they need for their classrooms and media centers.

Scholastic teams up with the American Museum of Natural History to promote science literacy among students in grades 3 through 10 through Scholastic/American Museum of Natural History Science Explorations.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth installment in the blockbuster series, sells 6.9 million copies in the first 24 hours. To commemorate the release, Scholastic turns a street in New York City's SoHo neighborhood into Harry Potter Place where thousands celebrated the new book with Harry Potter themed games and activities. The book will set publishing industry records with a first printing of 10.8 million copies, sales of 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours, and 11 million sales in its first nine weeks. Scholastic.com is one of the top 50 online retailers, profiled in The Top 400 Guide, an exclusive ranking of America's 400 largest online retailers.

Scholastic Education launches ReadAbout:®, a new supplemental reading achievement program for all students in grades 3 through 6.

Scholastic.com launches Homework Hub, an innovative site for elementary and middle school students to help enhance their study, organizational and research skills.

Fisher-Price, the leading high-quality toy company for pre-schoolers, announces a partnership with Scholastic Media, for the launch of Read With Me DVD!, the first DVD-based learning product for pre-schoolers.

Scholastic Education's READ 180®, the company's breakthrough reading intervention program, is selected for a research study to inform how formal, structured reading programs, implemented in after-school settings, impact reading achievement.

Scholastic launches Lee y serás, a national reading initiative to support parents and communities in bulding early literacy skills among Latino children. Lee y serás was created by Scholastic in collaboration with the National Council of La Raza and the Verizon Foundation, and was launched at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC.

Scholastic celebrates 85 years as THE MOST TRUSTED NAME IN LEARNING®.

Award-winning publisher Michael di Capua moves his imprint to Scholastic.

Scholastic Education unveils Scholastic Sound & Letter Time™ early childhood program, and introduces a new enterprise edition of READ 180, the research-based, proven-to-work reading intervention program.

Marking the one year anniversary of the tsunami, Scholastic publishes the official version of Owen & Mzee, the inspirational true story of the baby hippo orphaned by the tsunami and adopted by a giant tortoise.

2006 Scholastic Audio Group established to produce read-along audiobooks and audio content for online downloads, MP3 players, and other media.

Snap TV, Inc. and Scholastic Media announce agreement to produce and distribute DVD games based on popular Scholastic properties Clifford the Big Red Dog® and I SPY™.

Lectorum launches new bilingual consumer web site.

Scholastic and NBC News join forces to rebuild school libraries in the Gulf Coast. At the end of the eight-week drive, more than more than $110,000 will be raised from viewer donations.

Scholastic and Yankelovich release Kids and Family Reading Report™, a groundbreaking study showing that kids’ reading drops off after age 8, and that parents can have a direct influence in getting children to read.

Scholastic News Online™ launches Desktop News to bring late-breaking news to students, teachers, and parents in school and at home.

Lucy McCormick Calkins, Professor of English Education at Columbia’s Teachers College, awarded Richard Robinson Chair in Children’s Literature; chair is endowed by family trust of Scholastic Chairman.

qubo, a new children's programming venture, focused on literacy and family values, from Scholastic, Ion Media networks, NBC Universal, Classic Media/Big Idea and Corus Entertainment, launches.

MOMMY?, the first pop-up book by the legendary Maurice Sendak, is released with art by Sendak, scenario by Arthur Yorinks, and paper engineering by Matthew Reinhart.

2007 Scholastic names Maureen O'Connell executive vice president, chief administrative officer and chief financial officer.

Scholastic announces it will publish mega-bestselling author Meg Cabot.

qubo launches as a 24-hour digital broadcast channel on Ion Media Networks.

J.K. Rowling's seventh and final Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, to be published July, 21, 2007.