New Century Education Foundation traces its roots to the Appleton-Century-Crofts publishing group, founded in 1825 by D. Appleton. In the late 1800s, New Century became a recognized publisher of text books in both English for American distribution, and Spanish for Latin American distribution. The Century Schoolbook typeface was designed by the company to convey large amounts of information on the page while remaining clear and easy to read for students. The New Century Dictionary, a two volume edition became one of the premier reference books of the late 19th and early 20th century. The New Century Encyclopedia became equally recognized.

The New Century Magazine was a leading publisher of literary works as well as academic papers in science and history. The publishing house’s many notable authors included Henry James in literature, Edith Wharton in art and design, and Charles Darwin in science. By the mid 20th century, the company had become a leading academic publisher in the field of educational psychology, including the works of B.F. Skinner, Robert Glaser, Jean Chall, and many other seminal researchers in education.

To develop new interventions, the company coordinated many of the leading researchers in their filed, including Robert Glaser at the Learning Research Development Center, B.F. Skinner, Jean Chall, and Helen Popp at Harvard, Fred Keller at Columbia Teachers College, George Spache at Florida State, Ralph Heimer at Penn State, Peter Rizza at Princeton Center for Education, Lawrence Mace at UCLA, and many, many more. Computer based, adaptive diagnostics were developed with the help of John Carroll, who later became a leading researcher at Educational Testing Service.

By 1986, an early version of the reading curriculum had been developed, and in 1991 the mathematics curriculum was introduced. Since then, other contributors have helped refine New Century’s products.

Refinements are based on the results from the company’s dedicated research in measuring the efficacy of its products in the field with varied student populations. Importantly, New Century adopts new technology only where it enhances teaching and learning, and not simply because new “bells and whistles” are exciting or entertaining. Researchers, including Marzono in the U.S. and others at Oxford in England, confirm that “too many bells and whistles” actually detract from learning.

In 2016, New Century’s intellectual property was acquired by New Century Education Foundation, a not-for-profit, in order to continue development toward addressing the special needs of challenged learners. The company’s development is validated in randomized, controlled studies conducted by independent researchers at leading universities, and the findings are consistent.

Students who use the Intelligent Tutoring System outperform those who don’t on independent assessments, and those who use it more outperform those who use it less. (See Research)