The Psychological Corporation and Harcourt Brace
This information has
been compiled by Jeanne Donovan of the Texas Education Consumers Association. Footnotes have been added.
The SAT (Standardized Achievement
Test), the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS),
and other state assessments, are written by The Psychological Corporation (PC)
and are aligned with national standards.
The Psychological Corporation is a subsidiary of Harcourt Brace (now
under the umbrella of Harcourt General, Inc.). Harcourt Brace was purchased by General
Cinema Corporation (now known as GC Companies, Inc.). A historical background is below.
At least on the surface, it looks like media moguls own the company that
writes our school assessments; they also own the company that produces our
textbooks. This raises a few
questions in my mind:
Anything
wrong with this picture?
Anything
wrong with my reading of the historical data?
Anything
wrong with the idea of school assessments being written by psychologists and
pedagogical specialists, rather than subject specialists?
Any
potential for manipulation of populations' attitudes, values, and beliefs?
Does
anyone know if Marc Tucker or other education gurus are on the boards of these
companies, or are major stockholders? [1]
Jeanne
The Psychological Corporation in San Antonio is a subsidiary of Harcourt
Brace. Here is a synopsis of their
company history:
a
subsidiary of Harcourt, the nation's largest publisher of books and other
materials for education, medicine, and academic/research specialty areas
founded
in New York City in 1921 by three eminent psychologists: James McKeen Cattell, Robert Sessions Woodworth, and Edward Lee
Thorndike [2]
Harcourt
purchased The Psychological Corporation in 1974, adding educational tests to
product line
1983
— PC moved from New York to Cleveland, Ohio
1983
— PC moved to San Antonio
1991
— General
Cinema Corporation (the fifth-largest theater chain in the United
States) purchased parent company, known then as Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
1993
— General Cinema Corporation changes its name to Harcourt General, Inc.,
reflecting the importance of its recently acquired publishing operations. Harcourt General spins off the General
Cinema theatre operations to its shareholders but still maintains an ongoing
relationship. The newly created
enterprise, GC
Companies, Inc. lists on the New York Stock Exchange.
1994
— The Psychological Corporation acquired Communication Skill Builders,
Inc. (CSB).
CSB develops and markets therapy products for
use by speech and language professionals based in schools and health-care
institutions
1995
— Assessment Systems, Inc.
(ASI) was acquired as a subsidiary of The Psychological
Corporation. ASI
in Pennsylvania is the nation's leading provider of computer-delivered
licensing and credentialing examinations and related information services
1997
— Harcourt General expands its publishing operations with the acquisition of National
Education Corporation (NEC) for $740 million in cash. The NEC businesses establish Harcourt
Brace as a dominant player in three new fast-growing segments of the education
marketplace. (Securities
and Exchange Commission report)
1999
— Harcourt Brace & Co. changed its name to Harcourt, Inc. as part of
its rebranding project to create a leading
educational brand serving people of all ages, anytime, anywhere.
_______________________
[1] The News Standards
Project, establishing assessment tools to be used nation-wide by those states
and school districts that are part of the National Alliance for Restructuring
Education design team (under the New American Schools Development Corporation),
holds a contract with Harcourt Brace for the establishment of those assessment
tools. Both the New Standards
Project and the National Alliance for Restructuring Education design team are
owned by National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE),
Marc Tucker president. NCEE was formerly Carnegie Forum on Education and the
Economy. [Back]
[2] These men were associated with Columbia University of New
York. [Back]
╪