Linda Darling-Hammond has received the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, given each year for outstanding works in music composition, world order, psychology, and education. "Providing equally good schooling for all American children— rich or poor and regardless of race—would improve the nation's failing education system."
So says Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University education professor who has won the 2012 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Education for her 2010 book, The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future.
The United States no longer leads the world in education because it spends far less on low-income and minority students than it does on affluent students, Darling-Hammond found. Her research shows that although high-achieving nations in Europe and Asia fund schools centrally and equally, the wealthiest American school districts spend nearly 10 times more than the poorest.
In particular, U.S. black and Hispanic children consistently fall below global academic norms because they have less access to well-prepared teachers and engaging classes than white and Asian students, she found.
“She does a masterful job of showing how giving all children the same opportunity to receive a good education can help our nation stay competitive in an increasingly globalized society,” said Diane Kyle, acting faculty director for the award.
From 1994 to 2001, Darling-Hammond directed the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a blue-ribbon panel whose 1996 report led to sweeping policy changes affecting teaching and teacher education. A member of the National Academy of Education, she is also former president of the American Educational Research Association.
The University of Louisville presents four Grawemeyer Awards each year for outstanding works in music composition, world order, psychology and education. The university and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary jointly give a fifth award in religion. This year’s awards are $100,000 each.
The four recipients, listed below, each present a public lecture. Darling-Hammond will speak on April 11. See schedule, below.
About Linda Darling-Hammond
Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University and Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. She is widely considered a leading voice in education.
A former public school teacher, she has since become one of the most influential scholars in her field, working for nearly 30 years with teachers, schools and policy makers to improve the educational process.
In 2006, Education Week named her one of the most influential people affecting education policy over the last decade.
From 1989 to 1998, she was the William F. Russell Professor of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she also co-directed Columbia’s National Center for Restructuring Education. At Columbia, she also chaired New York State’s Council on Curriculum and Assessment, helping develop a comprehensive school reform plan for the state.
Since joining Stanford in 1998, she has launched the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, a center that conducts research and policy analyses in support of greater equity and opportunity, and the School Redesign Network, an effort to help urban school districts redesign their schools and offices to improve education outcomes.
Darling-Hammond holds a doctorate of education from Temple University and a bachelor’s of arts degree from Yale University.
She has written, co-written or edited more than a dozen books, including “Powerful Learning: What We Know About Teaching for Understanding” and “Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What Teachers Should Learn and Be Able to Do,” and has published more than 300 articles on education policy and practice.
Her Grawemeyer-Award winning book, “The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future,” was published by Teachers College Press at Columbia.
Grawemeyer Award winners to give free public talks
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Recipients of the 2012 Grawemeyer Awards will discuss their winning works and ideas at the University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary April 10-16.
The University of Louisville (UofL) presents four Grawemeyer Awards each year in music composition, world order, psychology and education. The university and seminary jointly give a fifth award in religion. This year’s awards are $100,000 each.
Here’s the schedule for the free, public talks:
National Institute of Mental Health researchers Leslie Ungerleider and Mortimer Mishkin will speak April 10 at noon in 101 Strickler Hall, UofL. They won the psychology award for their “what and where” idea of how the brain works.
Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond will speak April 11 at 4:30 p.m. at UofL’s University Club. She won the education award for her book, The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity will Determine Our Future.
University of Pennsylvania history and American social thought professor Barbara D. Savage will speak April 11 at 7 p.m. in the seminary’s Caldwell Chapel. She won the religion award for her book, Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion.
Barnard College political scientist Severine Autesserre will speak April 12 at 1 p.m. in Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom Library at UofL. She won the world order award for her book, The Trouble with the Congo: Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding.
Finnish composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen will speak April 16 at 4 p.m. in Bird Recital Hall, UofL School of Music. He won the music composition award for “Violin Concerto.”
