Houston Branch of Orton Dyslexia Society founded. W. Oscar Neuhaus is first President.
1980
W. Oscar Neuhaus
Memorial Foundation is incorporated, becoming the first Teacher
Training Center in Houston offering the Orton Gillingham-based
Alphabetic Phonics curriculum, and the second in Texas. Recognizing
Oscar Neuhaus’ leadership in developing a community climate for
success, friends, concerned parents, and Dallas-trained dyslexia
therapists memorialized him in founding the Center.
Aylett Cox and
Margaret Smith at the Dallas Dean Learning Center agree to provide four
years of assistance in teacher training and in supervision of Neuhaus
Education Center staff as trainers.
Marvin Collie,
senior partner of Vinson Elkins, obtains IRS 501(c)3 tax exemption.
Community leaders Mr. and Mrs. Harris Masterson and the Cullen
Foundation give seed money and assure the future of the
Center.
Space of three small offices is partially donated in small building on Audley Street. Part time secretary is hired.
1981
First Class of Basic Introductory Course in Alphabetic Phonics is taught by Aylett
Cox, its author, and Margaret Smith with Fredda Parker, Marilyn
Beckwith and Lenox Reed (trained in Dallas at Scottish Rite Hospital by
Aylett Cox), as teaching trainees. Eight participants from various
fields, including a diagnostician, speech therapist, reading and
special education teachers, attend in January. Space is rented in St.
Phillips Church.
Twenty-five teachers from public and
private schools attend a June four-week session taught in Houston
I.S.D.’s River Oaks Elementary School. College degree required.
University of St. Thomas and University of Houston give 6 hours
graduate credit for Basic Course.
1982
Center moves its location to a large office building where it continues to expand until over 7500 square feet are leased. Full time secretary hired.
1984
Aylett Cox and her staff at the Dean Learning Center in Dallas certify the Neuhaus Education Center after a four-year internship.
1986
Texas legislature mandates that every public school teacher in the state of Texas be
informed about dyslexia and that an appropriately trained teacher be
available on every school campus. The Texas Education Agency approves
the Center’s courses for continuing education for public school
teachers.
1987
Neuhaus Education
Center signs contract with Special Education Department at Houston
I.S.D. to train resource teachers in Alphabetic Phonics.
First Neuhaus
Benefit Luncheon: Barbara P. Bush and new Superintendent of Houston
I.S.D. are speakers. Over 500 people attend sell-out luncheon.
1988
Project Apple
begins. One first grade teacher from every Houston I.S.D. campus
attends 30-hour multisensory training and dyslexia awareness
course.
Neuhaus-trained teachers offer adult reading
and spelling classes in the evenings at the Center.
1990
Board retreat and
long range planning committee result in decision to begin Capital
Campaign to relocate to own space. A consulting firm helps “package”
Neuhaus, and a part-time consultant is hired for the Campaign. Neuhaus
Board reviews mission statement and reconfirms.
1994
New 15,000 square foot building is completed and Capital Campaign completed in June.
1996
Texas Governor George W. Bush announces Reading as primary Education Initiative: Every
third grader shall read at least on grade level by the end of third
grade and continue to progress on grade level.
Governor Bush
attends Tenth Annual Benefit Luncheon to present the Excellence in
Teaching Award to a third grade reading teacher. Over 900 people attend
luncheon.
Houston I.S.D. Board approves PEER Report
that recommends a Balanced Approach to Reading.
Kay Allen and
Lenox Reed are appointed to English Language Arts and Reading committee
on the rewriting of the state curriculum, Texas Essential Knowledge and
Skills (TEKS).
Board Retreat in spring results in
Vision Statement for Year 2000 and task force committees.
1997
Distance learning
begins at the Center. Brownsville I.S.D. contracts with the Center to
train all of its first-grade teachers in Language Enrichment I. Middle
School teachers are trained in Language Enrichment II.
Barbara Bush
presents Excellence in Teaching Award to Houston I.S.D. Kindergarten
teacher at 11th Annual Benefit Luncheon. 1200 people attend and hear
speaker, Dr. Mel Levine.
Middle School
Initiative begins with Houston I.S.D. Seventy-six teachers attend the
60-hour Language Enrichment II classes during the year.
New part time
Adult Literacy Coordinator is hired to head adult literacy
program.
Neuhaus Forum is formed, a support group that
will offer two seminars a year with speakers on issues concerning
public education, and offer opportunities to volunteer in public
schools.
Lenox Reed is appointed by Houston I.S.D.
Superintendent Rod Paige to serve on the task force to study “Students
with Persistent Reading Problems.” Committee recommendations are
submitted to H.I.S.D. Board.
1998
Neuhaus Education
Center receives accreditation by Academic Language Therapy Association
Centers Council.
First Lady's Family Literacy
Initiative gives grant to Neuhaus Education Center and Ed White
Elementary School, Houston I.S.D., for its "Lifetime Readers"
project.
1999
Board and staff
retreat led by nationally acclaimed facilitator Susan Stone, Tulsa,
Oklahoma. Strategic Plan is developed and several task forces created
to study implementation.
Joanne White,
Neuhaus staff member, and Lenox Reed are appointed to Texas Textbook
Selection Committee by Mike Moses, Commissioner of Education.
Neuhaus Education
Center’s Dyslexia Specialist Preparation Program is accredited by the
International Multisensory Language Education Council
(IMSLEC).
Lenox Reed is elected to serve a four-year
term on the Board of Directors of the International Dyslexia
Association (IDA).
2000
Former First Lady
Barbara Bush helps the Center celebrate its 20th anniversary – 20
years, 10,000 teachers, 1,000,000 readers.
Suzanne Carreker
and Joanne White are chosen as two of the four Expert Trainers for the
Governor’s Reading Initiative’s First Grade Reading Academies in which
26,000 first grade teachers in Texas receive four days of training in
the structure of the language for reading.
2001
Through the introduction of the online offering of Developing Fluency for Reading Success and Reading Comprehension: The Ultimate Goal of Reading, it becomes possible to attend a Neuhaus workshop at any time, 24-hours a day, and seven days a week.
Results of a Neuhaus spelling intervention are published in Annals of Dyslexia, the professional journal of The International Dyslexia Association.
2002
Results from research in Brownsville ISD show a significant difference in fifth-grade students who received reading instruction in second grade from teachers trained by the Neuhaus Education Center and using Neuhaus' Language Enrichment curriculum as compared with students receiving standard instruction.
Four literacy and language units for Pre-K written. First workshop for Pre-K teachers, Cooking in the Kitchen, offered in Fall 2002.
Four Family Literacy programs are established in the Fall 2002.
Idaho kindergarten teachers receive training in Neuhaus' Reading Readiness material and all first- and second-grade teachers receive training based on Neuhaus Language Enrichment curriculum. All third-grade teachers receive Scientific Spelling.
2003
New Interactive Video Conferencing equipment is purchased and put to use immediately. Attendance at workshops and courses offered through video conference training increases 200% over the previous year.
2004
The Center is retained by Teach For America (TFA) to provide its nationial training teams with enhanced elementary reading instruction. In June 2004, 1600 of TFA's new corps members are trained by the training teams.
Data from an intervention study conducted by Neuhaus demonstrate that the addition of strategies from Developing Metacognitive Skills to daily comprehension lessons boosted students' comprehension and spelling by 20% and vocabulary by 40% over students taught the same lessons without metacognitive strategies.
2005
Dr. Sally Shaywitz, author of Overcoming Dyslexia, speaks to an overflow crowd of community leaders, educators, and parents at Neuhaus Education Center's annual benefit luncheon and Lenox M. Reed Seminar.
La Cocina y La Granja...The Kitchen and The Farm, two of four language and literacy units for Pre-K, are translated into Spanish for bilingual classrooms.
Suzanne Carreker writes the activity book to accompany the new edition of Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills, a textbook used in many university courses.
City of Houston Mayor Bill White and his wife, Andrea White, lead Center supporters in celebrating the Centers' 25th birthday at an Open House in September.
2006
After implementing Neuhaus Education Center's training for K-3 teachers in 2002, Idaho becomes one of only three states to significantly increase fourth-grade reading scores on the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Four newly developed online classes - Reading Comprehension, The Structure of the English Language for Reading, Multisensory Grammar - Advanced, and Scientific Spelling - are offered online.
2007
University of St. Thomas grants 12 hours of graduate credit towards a Masters Degree in reading for work done through Neuhaus.
Research article on the Brownsville Project is published in Reading Psychology. Research article on the comprehension study is accepted for publication in The Reading Teacher, an International Reading Association publication read by 140,000 teachers.
Research poster presentation made at the meeting of the Society for the Scientific Studies of Reading in Prague, The Czech Republic.
2008
Neuhaus and Stephen F. Austin State University collaborate to offer a Master of Education with Reading Specialization online.
Reading Teachers Network (www.readingteachersnetwork.org), an interactive online resource for teachers, premieres.
Neuhaus partners with HISD to provide professional development for 600 teachers as part of HISD's initiative Literacy Leads the Way.
Aldine ISD contracts with Neuhaus to provide professional development for 128 teachers working with students with dyslexia.
2009
Neuhaus and the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University (SMU) offer a Master of Education with Reading Specialization in Houston.
Language Enrichment is presented to 24 teachers in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Language Enrichment online is launched. Neuhaus campus offers free Wi-Fi to visitors.