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48-435: Harcourt Assessment's history dates to the early part of the 20th century. Although the company name derives from Harcourt Brace & Company , which was established in 1919, the corporate heritage goes back to 1905 and the founding of World Book Company . Many of the educational products produced by Harcourt Assessment originated at World Book. The psychological assessments originated at The Psychological Corporation , which

96-501: A brand imprint for select products. In 2001, the Anglo-Dutch publishing company Reed Elsevier acquired Harcourt General and Harcourt, Inc., including the business then known as Harcourt Assessment, Inc. Harcourt Assessment encountered two straight years with mass layoffs as a result of poor management and a failed strategy to expand into the state assessment market. In January 2006, more than 70 workers were laid off. Shortly after

144-717: A definitive agreement to sell its Harcourt U.S. Schools Education business, including Harcourt Trade Publishers, to Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group. The merger was completed and the Harcourt name ceased being used separately in 2008. Harcourt Religion was sold to Our Sunday Visitor in 2009. Houghton Mifflin Company acquired Harcourt in 2007, combining the Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt names to form Houghton Mifflin Harcourt . Harcourt Trade Publishers published

192-400: A number of supplemental publishing businesses. Pearson already held a market-leading position in the U.S. textbook market and would not be interested in the main Harcourt business on account of regulatory concerns. Reed stated that it expected to complete the sale in the second half of the year and would use the funds raised to return cash to shareholders. On January 30, 2008, Pearson completed

240-409: A professional test company. In 1997, Harcourt General acquired National Education and Steck-Vaughn. In 1998, Harcourt General acquired Morgan Kaufmann Publishers . In 1999, Harcourt General divested its retail division and shortened the publishing division name to Harcourt, Inc. In 2001, the Anglo-Dutch publishing company Reed Elsevier acquired Harcourt, Inc. Harcourt Trade Publishers

288-456: A stock trade with Cypress Gardens . Jim Monaghan sold Circus World for stock to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich on Tuesday, May 10, 1986, at 3:50 a.m. HBJ had a new idea for the park, and closed the park at opening time that day to rebuild it into Boardwalk and Baseball . HBJ Park Group opened SeaWorld San Antonio in 1988. After an eight-year stint at Macmillan Publishing Company, Peter, William's son, joined Harcourt in 1980. In 1984, Peter

336-476: A strategic decision that we want to focus more sharply on our three existing businesses ... with better growth rates". On May 4, 2007, Pearson , the international education and information company, announced that it had agreed to acquire Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International from Reed Elsevier for $ 950m in cash. The sale of the two units left Reed Elsevier with most of Harcourt Education still to sell, comprising its large U.S. textbook business and

384-522: A wide range of books under a variety of imprints, including Harvest Books, Gulliver Books, Silver Whistle, Red Wagon Books, Harcourt Young Classics, Green Light Readers, Voyager Books/Libros Viajeros, Harcourt Paperbacks, Odyssey Classics, and Magic Carpet Books. Harcourt's adult books division was one of the most historic of the American literary publishers. Its backlist included Sinclair Lewis , Virginia Woolf , T. S. Eliot , Robert Penn Warren 's All

432-1057: The Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group based in Stuttgart , and it operated as a subsidiary publishing under its original name, Henry Holt and Company . Harcourt Achieve, Professional and Trade – publishers of supplemental and alternative core educational materials for pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 schools materials for adult education, school libraries and teacher professional development; and adult and children's trade books. Includes Harcourt Achieve, Greenwood/Heinemann , Global Library, Classroom Connect, Rigby, Steck-Vaughn, Harcourt Religion Publishers and Harcourt Trade Publishers. Harcourt Assessment - develops tests and resources for educational, psychological, speech, and occupational therapy assessment, as well as human resource selection and hiring ( talent assessment ). Tests include WISC , WAIS , WPPSI , Raven's Progressive Matrices and Versant . Harcourt Education International – publisher for

480-553: The Philippines . The company later moved to New York City , where it became a test publisher. Much of the company's success was based on the work of Arthur S. Otis, who was best known for the intelligence tests he developed for the U.S. Army. Millions of World War I draftees took Otis’ tests . World Book Company became the first publisher of group-administered tests measuring mental ability when it published Otis’ Group Intelligence Scale in 1918. Otis joined World Book in 1921. By

528-510: The United States Army to develop psychological tests to screen new draftees while studying under Charles Spearman and Karl Pearson . After short stints at various locations (including five years in private practice), Wechsler became chief psychologist at Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital in 1932, where he stayed until 1967. Wechsler was member of a 1947 mission to set up a mental health program and clinic for Jewish survivors of

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576-413: The 1921 to 1960 name "Harcourt, Brace & Company" to its publishing division as Harcourt Brace (no comma). At the end of the year it divested its cinema division. In 1994, Harcourt General acquired the religious imprint Brown-ROA from William C. Brown Company, a division of Times Mirror Company . It was renamed Harcourt Religion in 1999. In 1995, Harcourt General acquired Assessment Systems, Inc.,

624-545: The 1980s and 1990s, The Psychological Corporation (TPC) expanded through a number of acquisitions. In 1986, the company acquired Merrill Publishing's test division with its portfolio of tests for language, speech and hearing. In 1993, it acquired Cognitronics Corporation. In 1994, the company acquired Communication Skill Builders/Therapy Skill Builders and its therapy products for speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists and physical therapists. In 1983, The Psychological Corporation moved from New York to Cleveland . When

672-583: The 51st most cited psychologist of the 20th century. Wechsler was born in a Jewish family in Lespezi , Romania , and emigrated with his parents to the United States as a child. He studied at the City College of New York and Columbia University , where he earned his master's degree in 1917 and his Ph.D. in 1925 under the direction of Robert S. Woodworth . During World War I , he worked with

720-851: The Bellevue clinic. This battery differed greatly from the Binet scale which, in Wechsler's day, was generally considered the supreme authority with regard to intelligence testing. As the 1960 form of Lewis Terman 's Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales was less carefully developed than previous versions, Form I of the WAIS surpassed the Stanford–Binet tests in popularity by the 1960s. Although his test did not directly measure nonintellective factors, it took these factors into careful account in its underlying theory. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

768-526: The Holocaust. Wechsler is best known for his intelligence tests . He was one of the most influential advocates of the role of nonintellective factors in testing. He emphasized that factors other than intellectual ability are involved in intelligent behavior. Wechsler objected to the single score offered by the 1937 Binet scale, finding the then-current Binet IQ test unsatisfactory. Wechsler originally created his tests to find out more about his patients at

816-666: The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt name. The Harcourt Children's Books division left the name intact on all of its books under that name as part of HMH. In 2007 the U.S. Schools Education and Trade Publishing parts of Harcourt Education were sold by Reed Elsevier to Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group . Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International were acquired by Pearson , the international education and information company, in January 2008. The first-created component of what would eventually become Harcourt

864-509: The King's Men , and Alice Walker 's The Color Purple . Harcourt also published high-quality literature in translation by acquiring European writers such as Günter Grass (Germany) and Umberto Eco (Italy). Harcourt Children's Books published books for children of all ages, including interactive books for toddlers, picture books for young children, science fiction and fantasy novels for preteen and teens, as well as historical fiction. The house

912-629: The Metropolitan Achievement Test (1932) and the Otis Mental Ability Test (1936). Alfred Harcourt and Donald Brace were friends at Columbia College of Columbia University in New York, from which they both graduated in 1904. The two worked for Henry Holt and Company before founding their own publishing company in 1919, Harcourt, Brace & Howe , along with editor Will David Howe . After Howe left

960-558: The UK primary, secondary and vocational (further education) markets as well as English-medium schools worldwide. Also covers the Australasian primary, secondary and further education sectors. Its imprints include Heinemann , Rigby, Ginn, Payne-Gallway and Raintree. HBJ Publications – business magazine and school supplies supplier that grew from sixteen magazines in the 1970s to more than one hundred by 1987. Executives from Harcourt bought

1008-442: The acquisition of Harcourt Assessment, Inc., having obtained all necessary regulatory approvals. Doug Kubach, president of Pearson's Assessment & Information group, led the integration of Harcourt Assessment into Pearson. Harcourt Trade Publishers Harcourt ( / ˈ h ɑːr k ɔːr t / ) was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company

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1056-484: The company diversified into non-publishing businesses such as insurance and business consulting. It also bought several theme parks—including SeaWorld , which it acquired in 1976 for $ 46 million. Harcourt also published mass-market paperback books with Pyramid Books , which it bought out in 1974 and renamed Jove Books. It sold this section to the Putnam Berkley Group in 1979. In 1985, HBJ merged in

1104-534: The company in 1921, the partners changed the name to Harcourt, Brace & Company. They published the works of a number of writers who became internationally renowned, including Walter Lippmann , Sinclair Lewis , Virginia Woolf , T. S. Eliot , James Thurber , George Orwell , Valentine Davies and Robert Penn Warren . Firms acquired by Harcourt, Brace include Brewer, Warren and Putnam; and Reynal & Hitchcock . Harcourt, Brace & World only existed between 1960 and 1970. The name Harcourt, Brace & World

1152-469: The company moved to San Antonio, Texas , in 1985, it established its own operational services, including customer service, warehouse, distribution, information technology, scoring and reporting services. In order to establish a stronger identity for its educational assessment products, and to link them more closely to the Harcourt name, The Psychological Corporation's education testing unit was branded as Harcourt Brace Educational Measurement in 1995. The name

1200-403: The company, replacing Ralph D. Caulo, who left after the theme park sale. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich was acquired in 1991 for more than $ 1.5 billion by General Cinema Corporation , a diversified company that operated a national chain of movie theaters, and retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman . In 1993 General Cinema Corporation renamed itself Harcourt General and restored

1248-652: The division in 1987 for $ 334 million. David Wechsler David "Weshy" Wechsler ( / ˈ w ɛ k s l ər / ; January 12, 1896 – May 2, 1981) was a Romanian-American psychologist. He developed well-known intelligence scales, such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) to get to know his patients at Bellevue Hospital . A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Wechsler as

1296-615: The following divisions: Elsevier (science and medical), LexisNexis (legal), Harcourt Education (education), and Reed Business (business). On February 15, 2007, Reed Elsevier announced its intention to sell its education arm, Harcourt Education, of which Harcourt Trade Publishers was a part. According to Reed Chief Executive Crispin Davis, "This is essentially a strategic decision that we want to focus more sharply on our three existing businesses ... with better growth rates." On July 17, 2007, Reed Elsevier announced that it had entered into

1344-415: The historic Harcourt Brace & Company. At the end of the year, Harcourt General divested its cinema division. In 1999, Harcourt General divested its retail division and shortened the publishing division's name to Harcourt, Inc. That same year, Harcourt, Inc. adopted the brand name Harcourt Assessment for its testing businesses. At the time, Harcourt Assessment comprised The Psychological Corporation, which

1392-436: The intelligence testing movement. First, he did away with the quotient scores of older intelligence tests (the Q in " I.Q. "). Instead, he assigned an arbitrary value of 100 to the mean intelligence and added or subtracted another 15 points for each standard deviation above or below the mean the subject was. While not rejecting the concept of general intelligence (as conceptualized by his teacher Charles Spearman ), he divided

1440-523: The largest middle and secondary school discipline. Holt also publishes in science, mathematics, social studies, and world languages. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich acquired the educational arm of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Saunders , and the Dryden Press in 1985 from CBS , and it retained the Holt, Rinehart and Winston name. CBS also sold in 1985 the other arm of the company, the retail publishing arm, to

1488-404: The layoffs, division president Jeff Galt left the company, and was replaced by Michael E. Hansen , who moved from Bertelsmann . Then again in January 2007, 122 workers lost their jobs. On February 15, 2007, Reed Elsevier announced its intention to sell its education arm, Harcourt Education, of which Harcourt Assessment is a part. According to Reed Chief Executive Crispin Davis, "This is essentially

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1536-406: The market in high school textbook publishing, but had little presence in the elementary school market. That year, William Jovanovich , who had become president of the company in 1954, took the company public and merged Harcourt Brace & Company with World Book Company to create Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. This was a strategic move that had a long-term impact on the company because World Book

1584-479: The position of Harcourt Brace because World Book was an established elementary textbook publisher and test publisher. In 1968, Harcourt, Brace & World entered the trade magazine business by acquiring Ojibway Press. In 1969, Harcourt acquired Academic Press . In 1970, the company was known as Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ), with William Jovanovich as chairman. That same year, the company acquired The Psychological Corporation . Under Jovanovich's leadership,

1632-601: The time World Book merged with Harcourt Brace in 1960, it had a portfolio of educational tests, including the Stanford Achievement Test (1923), the Metropolitan Achievement Test (1932) and the Otis Mental Ability Test (1936). World Book Company was not related to World Book, Inc. , the Chicago -based publisher of encyclopedias and other reference books. Psychologist James McKeen Cattell founded The Psychological Corporation in New York in 1921. Cattell

1680-673: Was a leading figure in psychology and was the president of the American Psychological Association , as well as founder and editor of Scientific Monthly and head of Columbia University ’s psychology department. At age 60, when Columbia dismissed him because of his public opposition to the draft in World War I, Cattell decided to pursue his interest in publishing. He joined forces with two former graduate students, Robert Sessions Woodworth and Edward Lee Thorndike . Both were eminent psychologists, and Thorndike

1728-894: Was a member of the Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE: RUK and ENL), a publisher and information provider operating in four global industry sectors: science and medical, legal, education, and business. As part of the deal, Reed Elsevier sold Harcourt's higher education division, and the NETglobal (formerly National Education Training), Assessment Systems, Inc (ASI), and Drake Beam Morin businesses to Thomson Corporation . Several parts of Harcourt (Academic Press, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, and Saunders) were transferred to Elsevier and several parts of Elsevier (including Greenwood Publishing Group ) were transferred to Harcourt Education. In 2004, Harcourt acquired Saxon Publishers, publishers of Saxon math materials. Reed Elsevier then comprised

1776-732: Was an established elementary textbook publisher and a test publisher. In 1970, the company became known as Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ), with William Jovanovich as chairman. That same year, the company acquired The Psychological Corporation. Under Jovanovich's leadership, the company diversified into non-publishing businesses such as insurance and business consulting. It also bought several theme parks—including SeaWorld , which it acquired in 1976 for $ 46 million. The company divested its theme park division in 1989 for $ 1.1 billion. World Book Company opened its first office in Manila in 1905 and published English-language educational materials for schools in

1824-436: Was best known for the intelligence tests he developed for the U.S. Army. Millions of World War I draftees took Otis tests . World Book Company became the first publisher of group-administered tests measuring mental ability when it published Otis's Group Intelligence Scale in 1918. Otis became a World Book employee in 1921. By 1960, World Book had a portfolio of educational tests, including the Stanford Achievement Test (1923),

1872-760: Was developed first in 1939 and then called the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Test. From these he derived the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) in 1949 and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) in 1967. The tests are still based on his philosophy that intelligence is "the global capacity to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with [one's] environment" (cited in Kaplan & Saccuzzo, p. 256). The Wechsler scales introduced many novel concepts and breakthroughs to

1920-451: Was founded in 1921. Alfred Harcourt and Donald Brace were friends at Columbia University in New York, and both worked for Henry Holt & Company before founding their own publishing company in 1919. Harcourt Brace & Company published the works of a number of world-renowned writers, including Sinclair Lewis , Virginia Woolf , T. S. Eliot , James Thurber , George Orwell and Robert Penn Warren . By 1960, Harcourt Brace led

1968-417: Was known as the clinical division, and Harcourt Educational Measurement, which was known as the education division. In late 2003, the testing business legally changed its name to Harcourt Assessment, Inc., and unified its two divisions into one operating company. The company retired the two division names – Harcourt Educational Measurement and The Psychological Corporation – although it retained “PsychCorp” as

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2016-599: Was last based in San Diego, California , with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City and Orlando, Florida , and was known at different stages in its history as Harcourt Brace, & Co. and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich . From 1919 to 1982, it was based in New York City. Houghton Mifflin acquired Harcourt in 2007. It incorporated the Harcourt name to form Houghton Mifflin Harcourt . As of 2012, all Harcourt books that have been re-released are under

2064-594: Was named head of the company's $ 400 million college textbook and professional division. In 1987, days after a failed attempted takeover of HBJ, British publisher Robert Maxwell sued to stop the company from carrying out a $ 3 billion recapitalization plan. Eventually, the company divested its trade magazines to the buyout firm Kidder, Peabody & Co. in 1987. The company divested its theme park division in 1989 to Busch Entertainment for $ 1.1 billion, when they expected $ 1.5 billion, to meet its large debt. In December 1989, Peter Jovanovich became chief executive officer of

2112-678: Was regarded as the foremost authority on the analysis and measurement of learning. The three men started a business to market psychological tests and related materials to educational, corporate and government clients. In 1939, the company published the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scales. David Wechsler was a former student of Woodworth at Columbia University. In 1970, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich acquired The Psychological Corporation and, in 1976, merged its educational testing department, acquired from World Book Company in 1960, into The Psychological Corporation. In

2160-416: Was shortened in 1999 to Harcourt Educational Measurement. In 1991, General Cinema Corporation, a diversified company that operated retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman , as well as a national chain of movie theaters, acquired Harcourt Brace Jovanovich for more than $ 1.5 billion. In 1993, General Cinema Corporation renamed itself Harcourt General and restored the publishing division's name to

2208-468: Was the World Book Company (unrelated to the Chicago -based World Book, Inc. publisher of reference works), which opened its first office in Manila in 1905 and published English-language educational materials for schools in the Philippines . The company later moved to New York City, where it became a test publisher. Much of the company's success was based on the work of Arthur S. Otis . He

2256-406: Was the original publisher of such classics as Mary Poppins , The Borrowers , and Half Magic . Harcourt School Publishers – U.S. elementary (pre-K–6) publisher with particular strength in the four major subject areas of science, reading, math and social studies. Holt, Rinehart and Winston – U.S. secondary (grades 6–12) publisher with a leading position in literature and language arts,

2304-458: Was used on books that were copyrighted as early as 1931, if not before. By 1960, Harcourt Brace led the market in high school textbook publishing, but had little presence in the elementary school market. That year, William Jovanovich , who had become president of the company in 1954, took the company public and merged Harcourt Brace & Company with World Book Company to create Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. This strategic action improved

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