New Century Education traces its roots as an academic and educational publisher to D. Appleton & Company (Boston, 1813) which  later became Appleton Century Crofts (New York).  Appleton Century Crofts was the American publisher of Charles Darwin in science, Henry James in literature, Edith Wharton in art, Sanford White in architecture, and many other great contributors to their discipline.  The two volume New Century Dictionary and extensive New Century Encyclopedia were among the premier reference materials of their time. New Century was a leading publisher of text books and reference materials in the U.S. and Latin America well into the 20^th century.  (New Century’s rich academic and educational heritage is chronicled in Fruit Among the Leaves, an Anniversary Anthology, copyright 1950.)

In the 1950s New Century emerged as a leading publisher of original research in educational psychology.  The Company specialized in publishing applied research by leading figures in learning behavior, such as B.F. Skinner, George Spache, Jean Shaw, Leonard Newmark and Robert Glaser.  Under the management of a visionary, Charles Walther, New Century began publishing educational products that utilized this research to accelerate learning, maximize retention, and motivate under-performing students. Among other things, research showed that the sequence of instruction significantly impacts the speed of learning, with some students responding better to certain sequences than others.  In the 1960s, IPI (Individual Prescriptive Instruction) Math was an early New Century product that sequenced instruction on an individualized basis to maximize learning progress.

In 19__, Appleton Century Crofts was sold to Meredith Publishing.  Later in 1974, Charles Walther purchased the New Century division from Meredith in an early management buy-out.  Under Walther’s ownership, the Company developed products that diagnosed students and prescribed individualized instructional content.  Under Walther, New Century Education also initiated extensive field testing of the efficacy of its products in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Kansas City, and other metropolitan school systems to refine its approach and to maximize learning behavior. 

In 1985, New Century began taking advantage of the computer’s superior ability to enhance learning and reduce the teacher workload associated with individualized instruction.  As personal computers became more powerful, they permitted New Century to automatically measure student mastery and to adjust the level of content as students responded to lessons and activities.  The computer more efficiently matched instructional content to individual student needs, and teachers appreciated the automatic management of curriculum paths, scoring and reporting on student achievement. To develop the curriculum for its first networked computer-assisted instructional system Excellence Plus Integrated Curriculum (EPIC), Charles Walther drew on the most recognized academic authors including Donald Cook, Ph.D.; Vivian Hodges, Ph.D.; Lillian Ruston, Ph.D.; George Spache, Ed.D.;  and Julie Vargas, Ed.D.

In 1989, Lepercq Capital Management, a subsidiary of New York investment bank Lepercq, de Neuflize & Co. made a substantial investment in New Century Education which provided funding for further technology development. In 1990, New Century introduced The New Century Integrated Learning System, a second-generation system incorporating digitized human voice audio, an updated and enhanced curriculum, and expanded management capabilities. Dr. Peter Rizza, (Princeton Center for Educational Services), Dr. Jerome Kaplan, (Seton Hall University), and Dr. Ralph Heimer (Pennsylvania State University) were engaged to develop a new math curriculum to align to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards. 

Refining the efficacy of its products through continued research, New Century today offers the most efficient standards based instruction, supported by documented achievement gains and pronounced test score improvement. Successive versions of The Integrated Instructional System software have developed to respond to changing state curriculum requirements and new technology platforms.