He served on or advised a number of bodies that set guidelines for the expenditure of federal funds and influenced the underlying policy of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
Deeply religious, there came a time when both of Tyler's parents thought that the medical profession was too lucrative and that they should realign their priorities, at which point his father became a Congregational minister.
[4] As the sixth of eight children, Tyler grew up in Nebraska where he recalled having to trap animals for food and wear donated clothing.
There was a time when Tyler wanted to become a missionary in Rhodesia, but he declined because he had no formal instruction in ministry,[5] unlike his younger brother who had gone to Yale Divinity School.
Because his concept of evaluation consisted of gathering comprehensive evidence of learning rather than just paper and pencil tests, Tyler might even be viewed as an early proponent of portfolio assessment.
The center was originally envisioned as a five-year project, but later became an ongoing independent institution that would eventually claim to have supported over 2,000 leading scientists and scholars.
As a member of the governing board, Tyler is credited with playing a critical role in determining the character of the center as a new type of educational institution.
In 1964, the Carnegie Corporation asked Tyler to chair the committee that would eventually develop the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 1969.
Tyler formally retired in 1967 from the Center for Advanced Study, but he later became president of the System Development Foundation in San Francisco in 1969, which supported basic research in information sciences.
Tyler believed in the social role of religion and remained a member of the First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, to which he paid contributions.