G. Reid Lyon, champion of research-based reading instruction (i.e. Reading First) at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and adviser to the Bush administration on scientifically proven effective reading programs and much much more, is leaving his government post to join a private-sector effort to develop alternatives to traditional schools of education. He will work with Dallas-based Best Associates, advised by both former Secretary of Education and Fordham trustee Rod Paige and former Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Moses, to create the American College of Education, a new breed of education school that uses scientifically proven research to train prospective teachers. "The majority of education courses are not rigorous whatsoever," said Lyon. "They typically are based on philosophical ideas and ideology, not the research we have on how children learn." If he approaches this new venture with the courage and tirelessness that he brought to his government work, the ed school establishment should be quaking in its boots.
"Challenge to teacher ed," Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, June 14, 2005
"National reading czar to leave public sector for teacher ed. venture," by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, Education Week, June 8, 2005