Graduate School of Education


Showing 1-10 of 32 Results

  • David Labaree

    David Labaree

    Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMost Recent Book:

    My new book – A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education – is an essay about the nature of the American system of higher education. American higher education is an anomaly. In the second half of the 20th century it surged past its European forebears to become the dominant system in the world – with more money, influence, Nobel prizes, and drawing power than any of the systems that served as its models. By all rights, this never should have happened. Its origins were remarkably humble, arising from a loose assortment of parochial 19th century liberal arts colleges, which emerged in the pursuit of sectarian expansion and civic boosterism more than scholarly distinction. It was not even a system in the usual sense of the word, since it emerged with no plan, no planner, no prospects, and no reliable source of support. Yet these weaknesses of the American system in the 19th century turned out to be strengths in the 20th. From the difficult circumstances of trying to survive in an environment with a weak state, a divided church, and intense competition with peer institutions, American colleges developed into a system of higher education that was lean, adaptable, consumer-sensitive, self-supporting, and radically decentralized. This put the system in a strong position to expand and prosper when, before the turn of the century, it finally got what it was most grievously lacking: academic credibility (which came when it adopted elements of the German research university) and large student enrollments (which came when middle class families started to see social advantage in sending their children to college).

    This system is extraordinarily complex, bringing together contradictory educational goals, a broad array political constituencies, diverse sources of funds, and multiple forms of authority into a single institutional arena characterized by creative tension and local autonomy. One tension is between the influence of the market and the influence of the state. Another arises from the conflict among three social-political visions of higher education – as undergraduate college (populist), graduate school (elite), and land grant college (practical). A third arises from the way the system combines three alternative modes of authority – traditional, rational, and charismatic. In combination, these elements promote organizational complexity, radical stratification, broad political and financial support, partial autonomy, and adaptive entrepreneurial behavior.

  • Teresa LaFromboise

    Teresa LaFromboise

    Professor of Education
    On Leave from 09/01/2023 To 04/30/2024

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBicultural competence and resilience in ethnic minority adolescent development. Particularly, the influence of enculturation and acculturation experiences on adolescent development. Cultural considerations in individual, school and community-based psychological interventions with adolescents and emerging adults.

  • Victor R. Lee

    Victor R. Lee

    Associate Professor of Education

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAI literacy, data literacy, quantified self, maker education, conceptual change in science, elementary computer science education

  • Christopher J. Lemons

    Christopher J. Lemons

    Associate Professor of Education

    BioChristopher J. Lemons, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Special Education in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. His research focuses on improving academic outcomes for children and adolescents with intellectual, developmental, and learning disabilities. His recent research has focused on developing and evaluating reading interventions for individuals with Down syndrome and other intellectual and developmental disabilities. His areas of expertise include reading interventions for children and adolescents with learning and intellectual disabilities, data-based individualization, and intervention-related assessment and professional development. Lemons has secured funding to support his research from the Institute of Education Sciences and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, both within the U.S. Department of Education and from the National Institutes of Health. Lemons is a Senior Advisor of the National Center on Intensive Intervention and the Progress Center, both within American Institutes of Research (AIR) in Washington, DC. He also chairs the Executive Committee of the Pacific Coast Research Conference (PCRC) and serves as the President-Elect of the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division of Research Lemons is a recipient of the Pueschel-Tjossem Research Award from the National Down Syndrome Congress and the Distinguished Early Career Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division for Research. In 2016, Lemons received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers, from President Obama. Prior to entering academia, Lemons taught in several special education settings including a preschool autism unit, an elementary resource and inclusion program, and a middle school life skills classroom.