Pearson is an education publishing and assessment service to schools and corporations, as well
as directly to students. Pearson owns educational media brands including Addison–Wesley, BBC
Active, Bug Club, eCollege, Fronter, Longman, MyEnglishLab, Penguin Readers, Prentice Hall,
Poptropica and Financial Times Press. Pearson is part of Pearson PLC, which also
owns Penguin Books and the Financial Times. It was created in 1998 when Pearson PLC purchased
the education division of Simon & Schuster from Viacom and merged it with its own education
division, Addison-Wesley Longman to form Pearson Education. Pearson Education was rebranded
to Pearson in 2011, and split into an International and a North American division.
Though Pearson generates approximately 60% of its sales in North America, they operate
in more than 70 countries. Pearson International is headquartered in London with offices across
Europe, Asia and South America. Their online chat support is based in the Philippines.
Pearson North America is headquartered in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey with major
divisions based in San Francisco, Boston, Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis and Chandler,
Arizona.
Imprints Pearson has a number of publishing imprints:
Partnerships Pearson has partnered with five other higher-education
publishers to create CourseSmart, a company developed to sell college textbooks in eTextbook
format on a common platform. In 2010, Pearson agreed to a 5 year, $32 million, contract
with the New York State Department of Education to design tests for students in grades 4-8.
"Pineapple-Gate" In the spring of 2012, tests that Pearson
designed for the NYSED were found to contain over 30 errors, which caused controversy.
One of the most prominent featured a passage about a talking pineapple on the 8th Grade
ELA test. After public outcry, the NYSED announced it would not count the questions in scoring.
Other errors included a miscalculated question on the 8th Grade Mathematics test regarding
astronomical units, a 4th grade math question with two correct answers, errors in the 6th
grade ELA scoring guide, and over twenty errors on foreign language math tests.
Technology products Mastering, an adaptive tutorial system with
specific wrong-answer feedback for students and diagnostics for instructors for the sciences.
Active Teach, a unique digital learning resource that combines pedagogically sound text books
with innovative teaching and learning materials. Course Compass extensions to Blackboard Inc.'s
MyEnglishLab, online English language learning. CourseConnect, a library of customisable online
courses Livelessons, video training from technology
experts MyMathLab and MyStatsLab, comprehensive online,
interactive teaching/learning systems Pearson LearningStudio, SaaS-based Learning
Management System Market Leader Live, Online Business English
training Mastering Platform, college level homework
assessment system OpenClass, free learning environment delivered
from the cloud, integrated with Google Apps for Education™
Maths Champs, A free maths games service for primary age children.
MyITLab, online computer and computer information systems learning
Competitors Pearson operates globally and has a range
of competitors, both worldwide and in each country in which it operates. In the United
States, its main K-12 competitors include Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and McGraw-Hill
Education, a former division of the McGraw Hill Companies, Inc which was sold off as
a separate unit in 2013. International competitors include Macmillan Education, a division of
Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. Harcourt Assessment acquisition
Pearson announced the acquisition of Harcourt Assessment in May 2007. The Harcourt Assessment
business was merged into the Assessment & Information group in January 2008 after a review by the
U.S. Department of Justice was completed. See also
List of largest UK book publishers References
External links Official website
Official website Official website