Ralph Tyler was born in Chicago in 1902, at a time when the educational philosophy was that of strong discipline, and that children should not speak to each other only to the teacher. The popular curricula of the time was McGuffy’s Readers which taught ideals and morals. While Tyler was entering high school World War I broke out, and had a profound effect on education and evaluation.

As a way to determine who was officer candidate, The U.S. Army
used the Army Alpha Test. Following this test, the development and use of achievement tests began to take hold, and within the decade five million tests were being given annually. For his master’s thesis, Tyler developed a science test for high school students. However, he believed that testing and memorization was problematic, and was something to be researched for the rest of his life.

One of Tyler’s most notable projects was the Eight Year Study, which is considered by many to the most important and comprehensive curriculum experiment ever carried on in the United States. The result of this study was the progressive education movement, and this study conceptualized the objectives-based approach to educational evaluation. Based on what he learned on the Eight Year Study, of which he was the director of the evaluation staff, he developed many of his ideas on evaluation and curriculum.

Tyler published more than 700 articles, and 16 books, one of which was the Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. This book is divided into 5 sections:

1. What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?
   
2. How can learning experiences be selected which are likely to be useful in attaining these objectives?
   
3. How can learning experiences be organized for effective instruction?
   
4. How can the effectiveness of learning experiences be evaluated?
   
5. Description of how a school or college staff may work on curriculum building.
   
   

In his book Tyler contends that one of the main problems with education is that educational programs do not have clearly defined purposes.

Tyler directed notable educational theorists such as Hilda Taba and Benjamin Bloom.

Publications

Basic principles of curriculum and instruction.