Victory: The Story of a Young Woman Far From Home
In 1964, Victoria Porras, the founder of Victory Productions, attended high school in Melrose, Massachusetts, as an exchange student from Bogota, Colombia. She was far from home, and her host family, teachers and new schoolmates were friendly and eager to help. However, Victoria struggled with the everyday English spoken in the Boston area, accented, idiomatic, and studded with acronyms.
The idea of Victory grew from that experience. Victoria decided that she would find a way to help other exchange students navigate spoken English. Over time, Victory has adapted to the changing educational market. Today, Victoria’s initial idea to help English Language Learners has evolved into a company whose work is based on a profound desire to help all students learn.
1995
Victoria Porras established Victory Productions to develop educational materials to teach English as a Second Language (ESL).
1996
Victory enters the Spanish translation market with the completion of its first project - the design and production of Spanish readers for Houghton Mifflin’s first K-6 Spanish reading program.
2000
An editorial department staffed with content specialists for K–12 mathematics, science, English language arts, social studies, and ESL is created to begin developing products in English.
2004
Victory produces one of the first databases to track state standards to help learning companies track changing state standards in different content areas.
2005
Technology changes product components. Victory submits the first K–6 social studies online program component as an integral part of a state adoption by California.
2007
Victory creates the first multi-touch LMS. Teachers choose the grade and state social studies standard to be taught. Lessons and content individualized for each student are presented, and the results are recorded and compiled.
2009
Victory develops the first social studies iPad textbook app (grade 4) as part of the Commonwealth of Virginia's Beyond Textbooks initiative.
2010
Linden Learning, a wholly-owned subsidiary in Medellín, Colombia, is founded to focus on technology in education. The Linden team works with the editorial and technology teams in Worcester to develop innovative and effective learning tools.
2010
As assessment becomes the focus of learning companies, the company's high-stakes assessment group is launched to develop assessment items for the official state tests in Puerto Rico.
2012
Victory produces two of the first iBook Textbooks to be sold on the iTunes Store: the Economics and Personal Finance series and Breaking the Spanish Barrier.
2012
Victory receives the prestigius Member of the Year Award for 2012 from the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP).
2017
Victory begins developing 3D aligned, evidence-centered assessments such as performance tasks and TEIs that address many facets of NGSS.
2019
Victory creates a Critical Thinking Tool for developing interactive lessons in Social Studies, STEM, and ELA.
