Flat World and Education
Winner of the 2012 Grawemeyer Award in Education
As America enters the 21st century, U.S. students continue to slip behind in the world's rankings in science and math. Yet, at the same time, state prison budgets are increasing nearly three times as fast as budgets for education. In her new book, Linda Darling-Hammond, a chief education advisor to President Barack Obama, a bestselling author, and a nationally recognized leader in education reform, explores how America's performance globally is linked to the minority-majority achievement gap at home.
Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond is currently Charles E. Ducommun professor of education at Stanford University, where she founded and oversees the School Redesign Network. The program works across the nation to transform schools to teach 21st-century skills and support student success through innovations in district and school redesign, as well as in curriculum, teaching, and assessment. She also founded and co-directs the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, which conducts research and policy analysis on issues affecting educational equity and opportunity. Recently, Darling-Hammond was named one of the nation’s ten most influential people affecting educational policy over the past decade, and she served as the leader of President Barack Obama’s education policy transition team.
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 served on the White House Advisory Panel’s Resource Group for the National Education Goals, the National Academy’s Panel on the Future of Educational Research, the Academy’s Committee on Teacher Education, and on the boards of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the Spencer Foundation, the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education, the Center for Teaching Quality, the Alliance for Excellent Education, and the National Council for Educating Black Children.
She received the 2022 Yidan Prize for Education Research. She received the 2023 AERA Distinguished Public Service Award. She received the 2023 National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) Policy Leader of the Year.