Theodore R. Sizer

Theodore R. Sizer (born June 23, 1932, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.—died October 21, 2009, Harvard, Massachusetts) was an American educator and administrator who was best known for founding (1984) the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), which advocated greater flexibility within schools and more-personalized instruction, among other reforms.

After earning a B.A. (1953) at Yale University, Sizer joined the U.S. Army, and his experiences as a training officer contributed to his decision to pursue a career in education. He later attended Harvard University, earning an M.A. (1957) in teaching and a Ph.D. (1961) in education and American history. Sizer then began teaching at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, where he was made dean in 1964. He left Harvard in 1972 to become headmaster of Phillips Academy, a prep school in Andover, Massachusetts; he held the post until 1981. In 1983 he accepted a teaching position at Brown University, where he founded (1994) the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. After retiring from Brown in 1997, he designed the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School in Devens, Massachusetts, and took a one-year position as coprincipal with his wife, Nancy Faust Sizer.

Although he was engaged in numerous educational reform efforts, Sizer’s work with the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) was the hallmark of his career. Starting with a dozen schools in 1984, CES grew to more than 600 formal members by the early 21st century. As the Essential School movement gained momentum, regional centres were created to coordinate the reforms, coach teachers and administrators, and evaluate schools for membership.

Three of Sizer’s books—Horace’s Compromise (1984), Horace’s School (1992), and Horace’s Hope (1996)—explore the fundamental components of Sizer’s Essential School reform effort. Like John Dewey, Sizer insisted on the give-and-take dialogue between teachers and students, rather than the traditional lecture, and he saw teaching as coaching. He particularly wanted bureaucratized, comprehensive high schools replaced by smaller institutions. His call for longer class periods, depth over breadth, and more student-driven curriculum forced educators to frame the discussion of curriculum in completely different ways, and interdisciplinary studies, in-depth projects, and collaboration between students and teachers became more commonplace in American schools as a result of his efforts.

Sizer’s other works included Secondary Schools at the Turn of the Century (1964), Places for Learning, Places for Joy: Speculations on American School Reform (1973), The Students Are Watching: Schools and the Moral Contract (1999; cowritten with his wife), and The Red Pencil: Convictions from Experience in Education (2004).