In 1986, McGraw-Hill bought out competitor The Economy Company, then the nation's largest publisher of educational material.

[21] On November 26, 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies announced that it was selling its entire education division to Apollo Global Management for $2.5 billion.

[22] On March 22, 2013, McGraw Hill Education announced it had completed the sale and the proceeds were for $2.4 billion in cash.

[25] In 2014, McGraw Hill Education India partnered with GreyCampus to promote Online Learning Courses among University Grants Commission- National eligibility Test Aspirants.

On June 30, 2015, McGraw-Hill Education announced that Data Recognition Corporation (DRC) had agreed to acquire "key assets" of the CTB/McGraw-Hill assessment business.

[28] In 2018, McGraw-Hill launches textbook rental program, adding to affordable options available for college students.

In 1980, McGraw Hill paid the African American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin a $200,000 advance for his unfinished book Remember This House, a memoir of his personal recollections of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.[57] Following his death, McGraw Hill sued his estate to recover the advance they had paid him for the unfinished book.

[57] In October 2015, McGraw-Hill Education was accused of whitewashing history after it published a caption in a geography textbook referring to American slaves as "workers".

[58] McGraw Hill issued an apology, updated the digital version of the materials, and offered schools replacement texts at no charge.

[60] McGraw Hill has been accused of using online access codes included with texts to prevent students from reselling used books.

[61] During the COVID-19 pandemic, when many students were studying remotely, McGraw Hill was accused of price gouging, in charging several times more for ebooks than for print texts.