Linda Darling-Hammond (December 21, 1951) is an American academic who is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She was also the President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute. She is author or editor of more than 25 books and more than 500 articles on education policy and practice. Her work focuses on school restructuring, teacher education, and educational equity. She was education advisor to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and was reportedly among candidates for United States Secretary of Education in the Obama administration.
Education
Darling-Hammond was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Darling-Hammond received her B.A. magna cum laude at Yale University in 1973, and an Ed.D. (Doctor of Education), with highest distinction, in urban education at Temple University in 1978.
Career
Darling-Hammond began her career as a public school teacher in Pennsylvania, from 1973 to 1974.
In 1985, after completing her doctorate degree program, she began working as a Social Scientist for the RAND Corporation. Darling-Hammond was a Senior Social Scientist and Director of the RAND Education and Human Resources Program when she departed for academia in 1989. From 1989 to 1998, Darling-Hammond was a professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She came to Stanford in 1998. In September 2015, Darling-Hammond launched the Learning Policy Institute, a research and policy think tank, with headquarters in Palo Alto, California, and an office in Washington, D.C. She serves as president and chief executive officer. In 2019 California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Darling-Hammond to succeed Michael Kirst as president of the California State Board of Education.
Darling-Hammond was president of the American Educational Research Association and a member of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. She has served on the boards of directors for the Spencer Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the Alliance for Excellent Education. In 2011, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Educational Research Association. On 14 December 2021 Darling-Hammond became an International Fellow at the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).
Policy work on equity, quality, and teaching
Darling-Hammond has been engaged in efforts to redesign schools. As Chair of the Model Standards Committee of the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), she led the effort to develop licensing standards for beginning teachers. As Chair of the New York State Council on Curriculum and Assessment she oversaw the process of developing the state's learning standards, curriculum frameworks, and assessments during the early 1990s.
From 1994 to 2001, Darling-Hammond served as executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, chaired by Governor James B. Hunt, a blue-ribbon panel whose work put the issue of teaching quality on the map nationally and led to sweeping policy changes affecting teaching and schooling. Under her leadership, the commission carried out a strategy to build understanding and action for leveraging major improvements. The commission developed a national coalition as well as state and local partnerships in more than 25 states that built engagement and commitment to the issue of teacher quality, leading both to legislative changes and organizational reforms of schools and teacher education programs. The commission also carried out a public education campaign that brought the issue of teacher quality to a high level of public visibility. In 2006, Education Week named the commission's lead report, "What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future," one of the most influential research studies affecting U.S. education.
In 2006, Education Week said that Darling-Hammond was one of the nation's 10 most influential people affecting education policy over the last decade She has received honorary doctorates from seven universities in the United States and abroad. She has also received numerous awards for her work over the course of her career.