Right to Learn

LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University, and executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. She lives in Stanford, California with her husband and three children.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsThe Author1 The Right to Learn 12 The Limits of the Education Bureaucracy 373 What Matters for Teaching 694 Teaching and Learning for Understanding 965 Structuring Learner-Centered Schools 1486 Staffing Schools for Teaching and Learning 1777 Creating Standards Without Standardization 2108 Ensuring Access to Knowledge 2619 Building a Democratic Profession of Teaching 29310 Conclusion: An Agenda for Re-Creating Public Education 330References 339Name Index 377Subject Index 385

"In The Right to Learn, Linda Darling-Hammond gives readers a comprehensive, thoughtful look at the condition of American schooling and sets forth proposals for its improvement . . . . This well-organized and meticulously documented book presents an agenda for re-creating public education." (Washington Post) "Darling-Hammond's central claim is well worth listening to. She argues that American students do so poorly by comparison with students in other industrialized countries not because we don't give them enough work, but because our teaching is less thoughtful, and because we are obsessed with bureaucratic processes rather than educational outcomes." (The New York Times Book Review) "This is a very fine work-well argued, comprehensive, and authoritative. It will be treated as a Bible-or, more properly, a Constitution-by those seriously engaged in the improvement of American public education." (Howard Gardner, professor of education, Harvard University, and author of Leading Minds) "If only I could get every American who claims to be concerned about our schools to read this thorough, readable, and brilliant book. Linda Darling-Hammond knows our schools as no one else does-as a scholar, hands-on researcher, practitioner, concerned citizen, and parent. She crosses all the boundaries that so often divide us. And all sides of her diverse strengths show in her work and in this extraordinary book. As a reader you'll love it, and you'll come away wise as well." (Deborah Meier, senior fellow, Annenberg Institute of School Reform, author of The Power of Their Ideas, and principal, The Mission Hill school, Boston)