Scholastic Corporation

Scholastic Corporation is an American multinational publishing, education, and media company that publishes and distributes books, comics, and educational materials for schools, teachers, parents, children, and other educational institutions. Products are distributed via retail and online sales and through schools via reading clubs and book fairs. Clifford the Big Red Dog, a character created by Norman Bridwell in 1963, is the mascot of Scholastic.

Scholastic was founded in 1920 by Maurice R. Robinson near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to be a publisher of youth magazines. The first publication was The Western Pennsylvania Scholastic. It covered high school sports and social activities; the four-page magazine debuted on October 22, 1920, and was distributed in 50 high schools. More magazines followed for Scholastic Magazines. In 1948, Scholastic entered the book club business. In 1957, Scholastic incorporated their first international subsidiary in Canada, Scholastic Canada. In the 1960s, other international publishing locations were established in England (1964), New Zealand (1964), and Sydney (1968). Also in the 1960s, Scholastic entered the book publishing business. In the 1970s, Scholastic created its TV entertainment division. From 1975 until his death in 2021, Richard Robinson, son of the corporation's founder, was CEO and president.

Scholastic began trading on the Nasdaq on May 12, 1987.

In 2000, Scholastic purchased Grolier for US$400 million. Scholastic became involved in a video collection in 2001. In February 2012, Scholastic bought Weekly Reader Publishing from Reader's Digest Association, and announced in July 2012 that it planned to discontinue separate issues of Weekly Reader magazines after more than a century of publication, and co-branded the magazines as Scholastic News/Weekly Reader. Scholastic sold READ 180 to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2015. In December 2015, Scholastic launched the Scholastic Reads Podcasts. On October 22, 2020, Scholastic celebrated its 100th anniversary. In 2005, Scholastic developed FASTT Math with Tom Snyder to help students with their proficiency with math skills, specifically being multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction through a series of games and memorization quizzes gauging the student's progress. In 2013, Scholastic developed System 44 with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to help students encourage reading skills. In 2011, Scholastic developed READ 180 with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to help students understand their reading skills.

The business has three segments: Children's Book Publishing and Distribution, Education Solutions, and International. Scholastic holds the perpetual US publishing rights to the Harry Potter and Hunger Games book series. Scholastic is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and print and digital educational materials for pre-K to grade 12. In addition to Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, Scholastic is known for its school book clubs and book fairs, classroom magazines such as Scholastic News and Science World, and popular book series: Clifford the Big Red Dog, The Magic School Bus, Goosebumps, Horrible Histories, Captain Underpants, Animorphs, The Baby-Sitters Club, and I Spy. Scholastic also publishes instructional reading and writing programs, and offers professional learning and consultancy services for school improvement. Clifford the Big Red Dog is the official mascot of Scholastic.

Founded in 1923 by Maurice R. Robinson, The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, administered by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, is a competition which recognizes talented young artists and writers from across the United States.

In 2005, Scholastic developed FASTT Math with Tom Snyder to help students with their proficiency with math skills, specifically being multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction through a series of games and memorization quizzes gauging the student's progress. In 2013, Scholastic developed System 44 with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to help students encourage reading skills. In 2011, Scholastic developed READ 180 with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to help students understand their reading skills. Scholastic Reference publishes reference books.

Scholastic Entertainment (formerly Scholastic Productions and Scholastic Media) is a corporate division led by Deborah Forte since 1995. It covers "all forms of media and consumer products, and is comprised of four main groups – Productions, Marketing & Consumer Products, Interactive, and Audio." Weston Woods is its production studio, acquired in 1996, as was Soup2Nuts (best known for Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, Science Court, Home Movies and WordGirl) from 2001 to 2015 before shutting down. Scholastic has produced audiobooks such as the Caldecott/Newbery Collection; Scholastic has been involved with several television programs and feature films based on its books. In 1985, Scholastic Productions teamed up with Karl-Lorimar Home Video, a home video unit of Lorimar Productions, to form the line Scholastic-Lorimar Home Video, whereas Scholastic would produce made-for-video programming, and became a best-selling video line for kids, and the pact expired for two years, whereas Scholastic would team up with leading independent family video distributor and a label of International Video Entertainment, Family Home Entertainment, to distribute made-for-video programming for the next three years.