Amid teacher unrest, uproar over its charter school sector, and frustration with the way Californa measures school success, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday appointed Stanford Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, one of the nation鈥檚 preeminent education scholars, to chair the state鈥檚 board of education.
Darling-Hammond is the president of the Learning Policy Institute, a K-12 think tank, and has written several books and studies. She replaces Michael Kirst, who chaired the board during former Gov. Jerry Brown鈥檚 first term and his last two terms. Kirst and Darling-Hammond align on many education issues and many observers saw her appointment as a sign that Newsom will not stray far from Brown鈥檚 agenda.
California serves more than six million students, about one out of every 8 of America鈥檚 students. More than three-fourths of those students are students of color. The state鈥檚 department of education has been under attack in recent years for the ways it has decided to hold schools accountable and for the amount of money it provides its districts, many of which are sacked with skyrocketing pension debt.
Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the state passed down many powers to its 977 school districts to evaluate their schools and spend money as they would like. The state outsourced to a newly created state agency the task of working with its worst-performing schools.
The appointed board and the elected superintendent have sparred in the past over what sort of data to collect from schools, how to display that data to the public, and what to do with that data in order to figure out how to distribute state and federal money. In last year鈥檚 election, Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, a former school board member and city councilman, was elected as the state鈥檚 superintendent of public instruction.
Adding to the volatile climate surrounding education, Los Angeles teachers went on strike late last month over, among other things, pay, classroom size, and school support staff and Oakland鈥檚 teachers have threatened to soon also go on strike over similar issues.
Darling-Hammond, who will be the state鈥檚 first black state chief, lives down the street from Kirst, also a Stanford professor. She was instrumental in shaping many of the former governor鈥檚 policies on school choice, school improvement and school spending.
鈥淭his is a critical moment in California education,鈥� Darling-Hammond said in . Brown and Kirst 鈥渓aid a strong foundation for a new approach to 21st century learning.鈥�