Houston Branch of Orton Dyslexia Society founded. W. Oscar Neuhaus is first President.

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.

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.

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.

Aylett Cox and her staff at the Dean Learning Center in Dallas certify the Neuhaus Education Center after a four-year internship.

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.

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.

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.

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.

New 15,000 square foot building is completed and Capital Campaign completed in June.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.