Educating America : how Ralph W. Tyler taught America to teach / Morris Finder ; foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [175]-225) and index.

Foreword / Henry Louis Gates, Jr. -- Ralph W. Tyler : a chronology -- Pt. I. All schooling is local -- Ch. 1. Introduction -- Ch. 2. The making of an educator -- Ch. 3. Democratizing high schools and college admissions -- Ch. 4. The Tyler rationale -- Ch. 5. Appraising the nation's schools -- Ch. 6. Contrarian views -- Ch. 7. The mentor -- Pt. II. Conversations with Ralph Tyler -- A talk with Ralph Tyler / DWR -- The father of behavioral objectives criticizes them : an interview with Ralph Tyler / Justin M. Fishbein -- Ralph Tyler discusses behavioral objectives / June Grant Shane and Harold G. Shane -- An interview with Ralph Tyler / Kevin Ryan, John Johnston and Katherine Newman -- An interview with Ralph Tyler / Jeri Ridings Nowakowski -- Interviews with Ralph W. Tyler / Mary Louise Mickler -- Ralph W. Tyler : an interview / Malca Chall -- A chronological bibliography of Tyler's works : 1930-1985 / Edited by Helen M. Kolodziey -- Publications about Ralph W. Tyler, and a bibliography of Tyler's works, 1985-2002 / Edited by Lisa N. Finder.

"In his decades-long career at some of the nation's most prestigious universities, Ralph W. Tyler changed the course of American education. A strong proponent of local control of schools, he was convinced that nationwide tests and standards were unsuited to the diversity of communities across the country. His work reverberates today in our national discourse on public schooling and in the currency of his groundbreaking testing instrument, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which was developed to be informative but not necessarily prescriptive." "Morris Finder, a student of Tyler's while teaching school in Chicago, brings a insider's perspective to Tyler's work. Finder bases his work on extensive interviews with Tyler and those who worked with him, Tyler's letters to the author, and the many articles and books that Tyler wrote, making this an informed and knowledgeable view of an educator whose strong views and philosophy effect American schools to this day."--BOOK JACKET.