Linda Darling-Hammond

Linda Darling-Hammond is currently Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University where she has served as the faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education Program and launched the School Redesign Network and the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute. Her research, teaching, and policy work focus on issues of school restructuring, teacher education, and educational equity. From 1994-2001, she served as executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a blue-ribbon panel whose 1996 report, "What Matters Most: Teaching for America’s Future," provided a blueprint for transforming education to guarantee all children access to high quality teaching. The Commission’s work led to sweeping policy changes affecting teaching and schooling at all levels of government and to ongoing reforms in the preparation of teachers.

Dr. Darling-Hammond is author or editor of 13 books, including her latest, Powerful Teacher Education: Lessons from Exemplary Programs and The Right to Learn: A Blueprint for Creating Schools that Work, which was awarded the Outstanding Book Award from the American Educational Research Association in 1998. She has also authored or edited more than 200 journal articles, book chapters, and monographs on issues of policy and practice. Among her other recent books are Teaching as the Learning Profession (awarded the Outstanding Book Award from the National Staff Development Council in 2000), Learning to Teach for Social Justice, Professional Development Schools: Schools for Developing a Profession, A License to Teach: Building a Profession for 21st Century Schools, and Authentic Assessment in Action.

Prior to her appointment at Stanford, Dr. Darling-Hammond was William F. Russell Professor in the Foundations of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she was also Co-Director of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST). Darling-Hammond is past president of the American Educational Research Association, a two-term member of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and a member of the National Academy of Education. She has served on many national advisory boards, including the National Academy's Panel on the Future of Educational Research, the White House Advisory Panel's Resource Group for the National Education Goals, and on the boards of directors for Recruiting New Teachers, the Spencer Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education.

Darling-Hammond has been deeply engaged in efforts to redesign schools so that they focus more effectively on learning and to develop standards for teaching. As Chair of New York State's Council on Curriculum and Assessment, she helped to fashion a comprehensive school reform plan for the state that developed learning standards and curriculum frameworks for more challenging learning goals linked to professional development for teachers and greater equity for students. As Chair of the Model Standards Committee of the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), she helped to develop licensing standards for beginning teachers that reflect current knowledge about what teachers need to know to teach diverse learners to these higher standards.

Dr. Darling-Hammond began her career as a public school teacher and has co-founded both a preschool and day care center and a charter public high school. She has also served as Senior Social Scientist and Director of the RAND Corporation's Education and Human Resources Program and as director of the National Urban Coalition's Excellence in Education Program.

Dr. Darling-Hammond received her B.A. magna cum laude from Yale University in 1973, and her doctorate in urban education, with highest distinction, from Temple University in 1978. She received the Phi Delta Kappa George E. Walk Award for the most outstanding dissertation in the field of education in 1978, the American Educational Research Association's Research Review Award in 1985, the American Federation of Teachers' Quest Award for Outstanding Scholarship in 1987, the Association of Teacher Educators' Leadership in Teacher Education Award in 1990, Educational Equity Concepts' Woman of Valor Award in 1995, the Association of Teacher Educators’ Distinguished Educator Award in 1997, and the Council for Chief State School Officers’ Distinguished Leadership Award in 1998. She has received honorary degrees from the Claremont Graduate School, Cleveland State University, Temple University, the University of Oslo, the University of Redlands, and the University of Toronto.