Theodore Ryland Sizer (June 23, 1932 – October 21, 2009) was a leader of educational reform in the United States, the founder (and eventually President Emeritus) of the Essential school movement and was known for challenging longstanding practices and assumptions about the functioning of American secondary schools.
He later described his experience leading soldiers in a democratic and egalitarian fashion as a formative influence on his ideas about education.
From 1983 to 1997, he worked at Brown University as a professor and chair of the education department,[7] and, in 1993, he became the Founding Director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform.
[9] Deborah Meier joined the couple in writing Keeping School, based on the Parker experience.
He and Nancy co-taught a course on redesigning the American secondary school,[10] while he continued to work on the issues of integrating the multiple services that low socio-economic status families need in poor communities.