Bio


Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University and founding president of the Learning Policy Institute, created to provide high-quality research for policies that enable equitable and empowering education for each and every child. At Stanford she founded the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and served as faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education Program, which she helped to redesign.

Darling-Hammond is past president of the American Educational Research Association and recipient of its awards for Distinguished Contributions to Research, Lifetime Achievement, Research Review, and Research-to-Policy. She is also a member of the American Association of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Education. From 1994–2001, she was executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, whose 1996 report What Matters Most: Teaching for America’s Future was named one of the most influential reports affecting U.S. education in that decade. In 2006, Darling-Hammond was named one of the nation’s ten most influential people affecting educational policy. In 2008, she directed President Barack Obama's Education Policy Transition Team. She is currently President of the California State Board of Education.

Darling-Hammond began her career as a public school teacher and co-founded both a preschool and a public high school. She served as Director of the RAND Corporation’s education program and as an endowed professor at Columbia University, Teachers College before coming to Stanford. She has consulted widely with federal, state and local officials and educators on strategies for improving education policies and practices and is the recipient of 14 honorary degrees in the U.S. and internationally. Among her more than 600 publications are a number of award-winning books, including The Right to Learn, Teaching as the Learning Profession, Preparing Teachers for a Changing World and The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment will Determine our Future. She received an Ed.D. from Temple University (with highest distinction) and a B.A. from Yale University (magna cum laude).

Academic Appointments


  • Emeritus Faculty, Acad Council, Graduate School of Education

Administrative Appointments


  • Professor Emerita, Stanford Graduate School of Education (2019 - Present)

Research Interests


  • Achievement
  • Assessment, Testing and Measurement
  • Brain and Learning Sciences
  • Child Development
  • Curriculum and Instruction
  • Educational Policy
  • Equity in Education
  • International and Comparative Education
  • Standards
  • Teachers and Teaching

2023-24 Courses


All Publications


  • How Teacher Education Matters (Reprint from Journal of Teacher Education, Vol 51, pg 166-173 2000) JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION Darling-Hammond, L. 2023; 74 (2): 151-156
  • Policy for Civic Reasoning ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE Darling-Hammond, L., McGuire, K. 2023; 705 (1): 232-248
  • Implications for educational practice of the science of learning and development APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE Darling-Hammond, L., Flook, L. F., Cook-Harvey, C., Barron, B., Osher, D. 2019
  • Nurturing Nature: How Brain Development Is Inherently Social and Emotional, and What This Means for Education EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST Immordino-Yang, M., Darling-Hammond, L., Krone, C. R. 2019; 54 (3): 185–204
  • Research on Teaching and Teacher Education and Its Influences on Policy and Practice EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHER Darling-Hammond, L. 2016; 45 (2): 83-91
  • Can Value Added Add Value to Teacher Evaluation? EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHER Darling-Hammond, L. 2015; 44 (2): 132-137
  • When Teachers SUPPORT & EVALUATE Their Peers EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Darling-Hammond, L. 2013; 71 (2): 24-29
  • Developing and assessing beginning teacher effectiveness: the potential of performance assessments EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT EVALUATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY Darling-Hammond, L., Newton, S. P., Wei, R. C. 2013; 25 (3): 179-204
  • The right start: Creating a strong foundation for the teaching career PHI DELTA KAPPAN Darling-Hammond, L. 2012; 94 (3): 8-13
  • The Challenges of Supporting New Teachers EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Scherer, M., Darling-Hammond, L. 2012; 69 (8): 18-23
  • Evaluating teacher evaluation PHI DELTA KAPPAN Darling-Hammond, L., Amrein-Beardsley, A., Haertel, E., Rothstein, J. 2012; 93 (6): 8-15
  • REDLINING OUR SCHOOLS WHY IS CONGRESS WRITING OFF POOR CHILDREN? LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND NATION Darling-Hammond, L. 2012; 294 (5): 11-?
  • Restoring Our Schools Forget quick fixes. To compete globally, we need to improve the whole system. NATION Darling-Hammond, L. 2010; 290 (23): 14-?
  • Documentation and Democratic Education THEORY INTO PRACTICE Falk, B., Darling-Hammond, L. 2010; 49 (1): 72-81
  • Evaluating teacher education outcomes: a study of the Stanford Teacher Education Programme JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR TEACHING Darling-Hammond, L., Newton, X., Wei, R. C. 2010; 36 (4): 369-388
  • Teacher Education and the American Future JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION Darling-Hammond, L. 2010; 61 (1-2): 35-47
  • America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future PHI DELTA KAPPAN Darling-Hammond, L. 2009; 91 (4): 8-14
  • President Obama and Education: The Possibility for Dramatic improvements in Teaching and Learning HARVARD EDUCATIONAL REVIEW Darling-Hammond, L. 2009; 79 (2): 210-223
  • How Nations Invest in Teachers EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Wei, R. C., Andree, A., Darling-Hammond, L. 2009; 66 (5): 28-33
  • Teacher Learning: What Matters? EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Darling-Hammond, L., Richardson, N. 2009; 66 (5): 46-53
  • ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING AROUND THE WORLD WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO BE INTERNATIONALLY COMPETITIVE? PHI DELTA KAPPAN Darling-Hammond, L., McCloskey, L. 2008; 90 (4): 263-272
  • Improving teachers' assessment practices through professional development: The case of National Board Certification AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL Sato, M., Wei, R. C., Darling-Hammond, L. 2008; 45 (3): 669-700
  • Accountability Texas-style: The progress and learning of urban minority students in a high-stakes testing context EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION AND POLICY ANALYSIS Heilig, J. V., Darling-Hammond, L. 2008; 30 (2): 75-110
  • Creating excellent and equitable schools EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Darling-Hammond, L., Friedlaender, D. 2008; 65 (8): 14-21
  • Evaluating 'No Child Left Behind' NATION Darling-Hammond, L. 2007; 284 (20): 11-?
  • Highly qualified teachers for all EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Darling-Hammond, L., Berry, B. 2006; 64 (3): 14-20
  • Constructing 21st-century teacher education JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION Darling-Hammond, L. 2006; 57 (3): 300-314
  • Assessing teacher education - The usefulness of multiple measures for assessing program outcomes JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION Darling-Hammond, L. 2006; 57 (2): 120-138
  • If they'd only EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Darling-Hammond, L., Ifill-Lynch, O. 2006; 63 (5): 8-13
  • No Child Left Behind and high school reform HARVARD EDUCATIONAL REVIEW Darling-Hammond, L. 2006; 76 (4): 642-667
  • Teaching as a profession: Lessons in teacher preparation and professional development PHI DELTA KAPPAN Darling-Hammond, L. 2005; 87 (3): 237-240
  • Inequality and the right to learn: Access to qualified teachers in California's public schools TEACHERS COLLEGE RECORD Darling-Hammond, L. 2004; 106 (10): 1936-1966
  • Standards, accountability, and school reform TEACHERS COLLEGE RECORD Darling-Hammond, L. 2004; 106 (6): 1047-1085
  • Keeping good teachers: Why it matters, what leaders can do EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Darling-Hammond, L. 2003; 60 (8): 6-13
  • Reinventing high school: Outcomes of the Coalition Campus Schools Project AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL Darling-Hammond, L., Ancess, J., Ort, S. W. 2002; 39 (3): 639-673
  • Variation in teacher preparation - How well do different pathways prepare teachers to teach? JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION Darling-Hammond, L., Chung, R., Frelow, F. 2002; 53 (4): 286-302
  • The challenge of staffing our schools EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Darling-Hammond, L. 2001; 58 (8): 12-17
  • Does teacher certification matter? Evaluating the evidence EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION AND POLICY ANALYSIS Darling-Hammond, L., Berry, B., Thoreson, A. 2001; 23 (1): 57-77
  • New standards and old inequalities: School reform and the education of African American students JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION Darling-Hammond, L. 2000; 69 (4): 263-287
  • Authentic assessment of teaching in context TEACHING AND TEACHER EDUCATION Darling-Hammond, L., Snyder, J. 2000; 16 (5-6): 523-545
  • How teacher education matters JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION Darling-Hammond, L. 2000; 51 (3): 166-173
  • Reforming teacher preparation and licensing: Debating the evidence TEACHERS COLLEGE RECORD Darling-Hammond, L. 2000; 102 (1): 28-56
  • Teaching for America's future: National commissions and vested interests in an almost profession EDUCATIONAL POLICY Darling-Hammond, L. 2000; 14 (1): 162-183
  • Recruiting teachers for the 21st century: The foundation for educational equity JOURNAL OF NEGRO EDUCATION Darling-Hammond, L., Berry, B. 1999; 68 (3): 254-279
  • Educating teachers - The academy's greatest failure or its most important future? ACADEME-BULLETIN OF THE AAUP Darling-Hammond, L. 1999; 85 (1): 26-33
  • POLICIES THAT SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL-DEVELOPMENT IN AN ERA OF REFORM PHI DELTA KAPPAN DARLINGHAMMOND, L., MCLAUGHLIN, M. W. 1995; 76 (8): 597-604