Hugh Roome, President, Scholastic International, and Executive VP, Scholastic Inc.
Scholastic Inc. publishes more than 50 different magazines for students and teachers, according to Hugh Roome, President of Scholastic International and Executive VP of Scholastic Inc. Scholastic News, a newsweekly for elementary school students that was launched more than 80 years ago, now has more than 10 million readers, he estimates. Its titles include DynaMath, Junior Scholastic, Scholastic News en Espanol, Scholastic Scope, Science World and Storyworks. But Roome points out, "the magazine business is quite a bit smaller than our book business, which sells over 400 million books per year." (Last July, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" alone printed 10.8 million copies, a new high for that franchise.) A former IMAG Chairman, Roome is 2005-06 Chairman of American Business Media. After joining Scholastic in 1991 as a VP, he rose to Senior VP of its magazine group in 1993 and Executive VP in 1996. Prior to Scholastic, Roome was Senior VP at MCI and, from 1979 to 1989, Director of Marketing and Associate Publisher at Newsweek Inc.
Q. Much has been said and written about American students' low scores in math and science. What do you think can be done to improve those?A. There is some solid work being done in the areas that I think will have the greatest impact, particularly teacher training. Also, there have been some very good moves from the private sector to support math and science teaching. For example, we run a significant national awards program with Intel to recognize improvement in this area. I think there should also be concern about rising issues in science instruction, such as teaching Creationism. We also need to be wary of failing to support English and the arts.
Q. In some major cities like Milwaukee, the number of middle schools is declining in favor of K-8 schools. And in others like New York, some large public high schools holding 2,000 students are being subdivided into smaller so-called "magnet schools." All this in hopes of reducing violence and improving behavior and education. What's your take on these trends?A. Broadly speaking, the schools have improved markedly in reducing violence, particularly bullying. This is a result of heightened awareness of the risk, which has resulted in fairly effective training programs for principals and teachers, and dramatically increased coordination with the police and social workers. But there is a prevalent counter-trend. Increased violence in television and the movies, and particularly the intense meanness of video games such as Grand Theft Auto. It's ironic because interactive computers had the potential to be the greatest teaching tools of our time.
Q. What story in Scholastic publications has had the greatest impact on your student readers?A. Unquestionably, 9/11 was a huge issue in schools, because kids had at least as much trouble as adults in comprehending the event, and teachers were at a loss as to how to communicate with them. For our part, we mobilized the overnight publication of millions of copies of student newspapers which helped to explain the tragedy. We put up fairly comprehensive coverage on the Web, including advice and teaching materials shaped by noted child psychiatrists, to help teachers and parents help their children.
Q. What's the best idea you've gotten from your student readers?A. We had a summer skills-development program that would ship to parents each June. A fourth grader sent me a dollar bill, which he said I could keep if I promised not to send the program to his parents the following summer. And we did take his name off the mailing list.
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