nationally recognized leader in the field of evidence-based education,
Lyon served as a research scientist in the Child Development and Behavior Branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1992 to 2000 and was chief of that branch from 2000 to 2005. In addition, he was an adviser to the Bush administration on child development and reading research.
At the NIH, Lyon directed research that led to improvements in math and reading scores. “What we found was that even at Blue Ribbon schools recognized for their excellence, there were substantial numbers of students
who had not learned to read,” he says. “Because those schools had more students at high levels of proficiency, the underachievers were hidden.”
Armed with those results, he championed the requirement that all racial, ethnic and economic student subgroups show similar success for a school to be highly rated. That policy change forced schools to concentrate efforts on low-achievers.
In addition, breaking out that data made it possible to conduct research demonstrating that the underlying problem is poverty – not race or ethnicity, he says.
Texas’ graduation rate of 69 percent lags behind the national average of 71 percent, according to statistics from the Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE),
a national policy and advocacy organization that promotes high school reform. AEE figures show that 118,100 students did not graduate from Texas high schools
in 2008. The estimated lost lifetime earnings for those dropouts are more than $30.7 billion, according to AEE statistics.
Lacking adequate reading skills, students are destined for low-paying jobs, Lyon says. “In addition to the negative effect illiteracy has on health outcomes, they likely will drain public resources because of reduced tax revenue and increased expenditures for services like [government-funded] health care and prisons, two areas
where those with low literacy are over-represented.”
Lyon notes that the SMU educational leadership program seeks to produce graduates who can help prepare the future North Texas workforce to obtain the well-paying jobs of tomorrow that will require solid literacy skills.
“The number of opportunities for meaningful employment for non-readers has shrunk to minimal levels because all world economies are now based upon the ability to process print.”
&ndash Deborah Wormser