Ralph Tyler

By naom1xu
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    Ralph Tyler

  • Born

    Born
    born in Chicago, Illinois
  • World War I

    World War I
    Many students left school to join the work force and military service, causing a chaos in education system.
  • Start his career in education

    Start his career in education
    At the age of 19, he received the A.B. degree from Doane College in Crete, Nebraska, and began teaching science in a high school in Pierre, South Dakota. After starting his career in education, Tyler went to the University of Chicago to pursue a doctorate in educational psychology. He was trained with Werret Charters and Charles Judd to conduct a research focus on teaching and testing.
  • Start curriculum studies

    Upon graduation in 1927, Tyler took an appointment at the University of North Carolina, where he worked with teachers in the state on improving curricula.
  • Become professor in OSU

    Tyler followed Werret Charters to Ohio State University where he attained the rank of professor of education (1929-1938).
    He joined a team of scholars directed by Charters at the university’s Bureau of Educational Research, working as the director of accomplishment testing in the bureau. He was hired to assist OSU faculty with the task of improving their teaching and increasing student retention at the university. During which Tyler first coined the term evaluation as it pertained to schooling.
  • The Great Depression (1929-1933)

    The Great Depression (1929-1933)
    The severe economic depression took place mostly during the 1930s, originating in the United States. People study back to high study because of the high unemployment rate. But they found the high school curriculum which served for universities could not meet their needs.
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    The Great Depression (1929-1933)

    The severe economic depression took place mostly during the 1930s, originating in the United States. People study back to high study because of the high unemployment rate. But they found the high school curriculum which served for universities could not meet their needs.
  • The begin of the Eight-Year Study

    The begin of the Eight-Year Study
    The Eight-Year Study (1933-1941) is an experimental project to investigate secondary school curriculum requirements and their relationship to subsequent college success. Tyler worked as the director of the evaluation project from 1934 and continued work on the Eight Year Study at the University of Chicago.
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    Eight-Year Study

    Tyler conducted the Eight-Year Study (1933-1941) to investigate secondary school curriculum requirements and their relationship to subsequent college success. He continued work on the Eight Year Study at the University of Chicago.
  • Become department chairman, dean and university examiner

    Become department chairman, dean and university examiner
    It was around 1938 that he became nationally prominent because of the Eight Year Study. Whlie working at the University of Chicago, Tyler was employed as chairman of the Department of Education (1938-1948), dean of social sciences (1948-1953), and university examiner (1938-1953).
  • World War II

    World War II
    High school attendance shrank as many students left school to be in the army, which lead to the fracture between high school education and higher education.
  • Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction

    Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction
    At University of Chicago, Tyler taught a course known as Education 360, for which he developed a syllabus that he titled "Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instructions." In 1949 the University of Chicago Press published the syllabus as a book with the same title, and it has remained in print ever since.
  • Assisted U.S. President

    Assisted U.S. President
    Harry Truman - reforming the curriculum at the service academies.
    Eisenhower - President's Conference on Children and Youth.
    Lyndon B. Johnson - used Tyler to help shape its education bills/ Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
  • Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

    Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
    Tyler became the founding director of a Ford Foundation-sponsored think tank called the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, located in Stanford, California, a position he held until his retirement in 1967.Over the next twelve years he built the center into a highly selective fellowship program. 
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    National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

    When Tyler was director of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, he took on the job of designing the assessment measures for the National Assessment of Education Progress along with several statisticians.The result came to be known as National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), and NAEP resulted in measuring educational health.
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    Controversy during NAEP exploratory stages

    During mid-1960s, the plan caused considerable controversy. Many feared that it would allow the federal government to take control of the schools or that the findings might lead to invidious comparisons among schools. However, Tyler insisted that it was not his aim to promote competition.
  • Retirement

    Retirement
    He formally retired in 1967, taking on the position of director emeritus and trustee to the the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and itinerant educational consultant.
  • Finance Support for NAEP

    Finance Support for NAEP
    In 1967, the Carnegie Corporation financed the first administration of the assessment program; the following year Harold Howe II, then U.S. commissioner of education, authorized funding through the National Center for Educational Statistics. For the first time reliable information about the educational attainments of American youth was made available. In the years since(1969), the NAEP has evolved into a legal federal obligation that has received continuing bipartisan support.
  • President of the System Development Foundation

    President of the System Development Foundation
    He became president of the System Development Foundation in San Francisco and continued to be active on many other commissions, committees, and foundations, advising on education in both the United States and a number of other countries. 
  • Died

    Died
    Tyler's wife, Flora V. Tyler passed away before he did. Ralph Tyler suffered from cancer and passed away.