Ralph W. Tyler, education, curriculum development and evaluation : an interview / conducted by Malca Chall in 1985, 1986, 1987 ; with an introduction by Carl Tjerandsen.

Biographical Note

Educator.

Scope and Contents

Family background and education in Nebraska; post-graduate education, teaching, and research in testing at the University of Nebraska and The University of Chicago: experiments in reading and listening, relation of society to education; teaching and curriculum planning at The University of North Carolina and Ohio State University: the relevance of tests for teaching, effects of the Depression on education, the Cooperative test service; the eight-year study: origins, staff, administration, school politics, impact on education; work at The University of Chicago: undergraduate program, the Cooperative Study in General Education, the Orthogenic School, appraising New York City Activity Schools, establishment of interdisciplinary committees; promotion in 1948 to Dean of the Division of Social Sciences, approach to administration, White House conferences with President Dwight D. Eisenhower; The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences: early planning stages, role as director 1953-1967, first Board of Trustees, selection of fellows; special education projects and consultations in the United States: desegregating the Atlanta, Georgia schools, 1960s; the Extension Service, 1930s-1960s: Four-H Clubs, Agricultural Extension Service, youth programs; work with Bureau of Indian Affairs; cooperative work-study programs in higher education; the Educational Research Advisory Council; influence of pressure groups and the federal government on education; (cont) role in the University of Massachusetts Coalition for School Improvement, the Edsel Ford High School in Dearborn, Michigan, North Carolina State University, and San Ramon, California School District; consultations and special projects abroad; education in the United States: the National Assessment of Education Progress, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, study of the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the fallacy of "top-down" planning, role of the school principal, role of parents in education, private vs. public schools, teacher training; experiences on various boards, foundations and commissions; reflections on his life and writings, the women's movement, the "Tyler rationale", teaching, major life influences.

Subjects

• Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford, Calif.)--Interviews.
• Chall, Malca, interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Education--Evaluation.
• Education--Experimental methods.
• Education--Research.
• Education--United States.
• Educational change.
• Educational consultants.
• Educational tests and measurements.
• Education and state.
• Educators--Interviews.
• Eight-Year Study.
• Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Teachers--Training of.
• Tyler, Ralph W. (Ralph Winfred), 1902-1994--Interviews.
• University of Chicago. Department of Education--Interviews.

Access Conditions

Copyright by The Regents of the University of California, 1987. Request for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley.