KDP Laureates

What is a Laureate?

The Honorary Laureate Chapter was established in February 1924 to honor people who had made outstanding contributions to the development of professional education. John Dewey was the first nominee. Since 1924, 293 eminent educators have been named to KDP’s Laureate Chapter. Albert Einstein, Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jean Piaget, and George Washington Carver were all Laureates in earlier times.

We invite you to spend some time reading about the life and work of these excellent educators. No matter when they served or what they taught, these fine educators have made lasting differences in the profession that continue to benefit students today.

View Laureate Statement

Chair of the KDP Laureate Chapter

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Alan Schoenfeld is the Elizabeth and Edward Conner Professor of Education and Affiliated Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley. A mathematician by training who studies issues of thinking, teaching, and learning, Alan has served as President of the American Educational Research Association and been awarded the Felix Klein Award for lifetime achievement in mathematics education research by the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction. His research has focused on mathematical problem solving, models of the teaching process, and understanding aspects of learning environments. The key idea is to understand learning from the student’s perspective to be able to provide meaningful and powerful support for learning. Alan’s current research focus is the Teaching for Robust Understanding (TRU) Framework (see https://truframework.org), which concerns the creation and support of equitable learning environments from which all students emerge being knowledgeable and flexible thinkers and problem solvers. You can find out more about Alan’s work on his Berkeley website, https://gse.berkeley.edu/alan-h-schoenfeld.

Current Laureates

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Dr. Vivian Gadsden

2021

Dr. Gadsden is William T. Carter Professor of Child Development and Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (GSE). She teaches in the Literacy, Culture, and International Education division and is director of the National Center on Fathers and Families, an interdisciplinary policy research center focused on child and family well-being. She also is faculty co-director of the Penn Futures Project and a faculty associate of the Penn Child Research Center. She was associate director of the National Center on Adult Literacy for 6 years.

Gadsden began her career teaching developmental English, reading, and educational psychology at Oakland University and Wayne State University in Michigan. From 1983 to 1985, she was a research analyst at Policy Studies Associates in Washington, DC. In 1988, Gadsden joined Penn GSEs Literacy Research Center, where she became associate director in 1989. She also served as Education Graduate Group Chair from 1996 to 2004. In 2006, she was named the William T. Carter Professor in Child Development and Education.

With a career focused on working with families experiencing circumstances such as poverty, homelessness, and incarceration, especially regarding their effects on social and academic well-being, Gadsdens research interests have centered on cultural and social factors affecting learning and literacy for those at greatest risk. Her scholarship covers the intergenerational and cross-cultural nature of learning, particularly on the relationships between literacy learning, educational access, and educational persistence in families.

Gadsden is widely published, and has written or edited many journal articles, book chapters, and books, including Urban Context: Geography, African American Families, and the Possibilities for Family Engagement (book chapter, in press); African American Fathers and Their Young Children: Images From the Field (book chapter, 2020); Advancing and Building Capacity for Early Childhood Research (2020); and Parenting Matters: Supporting Parents of Children Ages 08 (2016).

Among Gadsdens leadership roles, she was President of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 20162017, as well as an AERA Fellow and Senior Fellow for the Penn Center for Public Health Initiatives. She served as co-executive officer of the Black Caucus and program co-chair of the Society for Research in Child Development. In addition, Gadsden has been involved in congressionally mandated review/advisory panels, including the Reading Excellence Program, Comprehensive School Reform, and the National Academy of Sciences. She has served on the editorial boards of several journals as well.

Her influence is also evident in the community, as she has served on advisory boards of the Philadelphia United Way School Readiness Initiative and the Goodling Center for Family Literacy.

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Dr. Tyrone C. Howard

2021

Dr. Tyrone C. Howard is the Pritzker Family Endowed Chair and Director of the UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children & Families, as well as Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. He also founded and serves as director of the Black Male Institute at UCLA, leading an interdisciplinary group seeking to improve the educational outcomes and life chances of Black males.

Howards research examines culture, race, teaching, and learning, and he has published several best-selling books exploring these topics, including his definitive book, Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in Americas Classrooms(2nd ed., 2020). This book is widely used in teacher education university programs and is one of the best-selling books published by Teachers College Press.

For two decades, Howard has developed original research and scholarship related to race, equity, disproportionality, poverty, and the education of Black males. His work has centered on the achievement gap facing African American and other culturally diverse students and the importance of assisting teachers in reversing persistent underachievement. He works to adopt greater awareness and understanding of race and culture to improve educational outcomes and is steadfast in his mission to find ways to help school systems and students succeed.

Among Howards honors, he was named an AERA Fellow in 2017; in 2018, he received the Division G Mentor Award. He earned the 2015 UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award and has been listed for several consecutive years by Education Week as one of the 60 most influential scholars in the nation informing educational policy, practice, and reform. In 2019 he earned the University of Washington College of Education Distinguished Alumni Award.

First joining UCLA in 2001 as Assistant Professor, Howard rose through the ranks of professorship. He was Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies from 2008 to 2015. In 20152018, he served as Faculty Director of Center X, a consortium of urban school professionals working toward social justice and educational equity in transforming Los Angeles schools. Previously, he was Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University and, before entering higher education, Howard was a classroom teacher in Compton, California, and Seattle, Washington.

A native of Compton, Howard has been a frequent contributor on National Public Radio and is also a contributor to The New York Times Educational Issues Forum. He has published more than 50 peer review journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports. He is on the editorial review board for the American Education Research Journal and Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, among others. He earned his PhD from the University of Washington in Curriculum and Instruction; an MA in Education from California State University, Dominguez Hills; and a BA in Economics from the University of California, Irvine.

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Dr. Daniel Solorzano

2021

Dr. Daniel Solorzano is a Professor of Social Science and Comparative Education and Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He also is the Inaugural Director of the Center for Critical Race Studies in Education at UCLA.

Solorzanos teaching and research interests include critical race theory in education, racial microaggressions, racial microaffirmations, and critical race spatial analysis. His groundbreaking research on critical race theory has dramatically changed the discourse in this field. In effect, his work has defined microaggressions as a key aspect of critical race studies, as exemplified by his widely referenced, co-authored 2015 article Racial Microaggressions as a Tool for Critical Race Theory in the journal Race, Ethnicity, and Education. His work is widely acknowledged as a major catalyst for the dissemination of critical race theory in education and strategies to address racism and inequality.

Dr. Solorzano has authored more than 100 research articles, book chapters, and research reports on issues related to educational access and equity for underrepresented student populations and communities in the United States. He has served in all segments of California public postsecondary education for 44 years.

Solorzanos recognition includes some of the most prestigious honors in the field, including being named a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2014 and elected a member of the National Academy of Education in 2020. In 2019, Solorzano delivered the AERA Distinguished Lecture on Racial Microaggressions. In 2017, he received the inaugural Revolutionary Mentor Award from the Critical Educators for Social Justice within AERA and, in 2012, was presented the AERA Social Justice in Education Award. In 2007, he received the UCLA Distinguished Teacher Award.

A native of Los Angeles, California, Solorzano received a BA degree from Loyola University in Sociology and Chicana/o Studies, an MEd in Urban Education from Loyola Marymount University, and both an MA and PhD from the Claremont Graduate School in the Sociology of Education. Before teaching at UCLA, Solorzano was Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at California State University, Bakersfield.

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Dr. Guadalupe Valdés

2021

Dr. Valdés is the Bonnie Katz Tenenbaum Professor of Education at Stanford Universitys Graduate School of Education. She has been a Professor at Stanford since 2002, including in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

Valds is a world-renowned scholar on SpanishEnglish bilingualism in the United States, and her research explores many of the issues of bilingualism relevant to teachers in training, including methods of instruction, typologies, measurement of progress, and the role of education in national policies on immigration. Much of her work has focused on discovering and describing how two languages are developed, used, and maintained by individuals who become bilingual in immigrant communities.

A founding partner of Understanding Language, an initiative that focuses attention on the role of language in subject-area learning, her research in the educational setting has focused on Latino students from elementary school to college. Valds did pioneering research on teaching, maintaining, and preserving heritage languages, and her definition of the category itself is widely cited.

Among Valds many accomplishments and recognitions, she is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a Fellow of AERA and received AERAs Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award as well as the Henry Trueba Award for Research Leading to the Transformation of the Social Context of Education.

Valds has been a prolific author and editor of textbooks, books, and articles. Her book Bilingualism and Testing: A Special Case of Bias is a timely classic that explores the growing challenge of increased use of standardized tests. She was involved in crafting the Framework for English Language Proficiency Development Standards corresponding to the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards for the Council of Chief State Officers. Valds has been a member of editorial board for numerous publications in her career, including current roles with the International Multilingual Research Journal, Research on the Teaching of English, L2 Journal, and Journal of Language Identity, among others.

Valds was previously a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley; New Mexico State University; and Western New Mexico University, and she began her teaching career at University of West Florida, where she was Associate Professor. She earned her PhD and MA from Florida State University and her BA from the University of West Florida.

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Dr. Victor Aurelio Zúñiga

2021

Dr. Victor Zúñiga is Professor of Sociology at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, Mexico. He is a tier 3 (highest level) member of Mexico's Sistema Nacional de Investigadores and has been editor of the journal TRACE (Procesos Mexicanos y Centroamericanos) since 2012.

Zigas work regarding Mexican children of transnational immigrants has contributed to a body of scholarship that studies children and their families returning to Mexico after living and working in the United States for extended periods of timeand tracking these same students once they arrive in Mexico. He is committed to teacher's preparation for attending the educational needs of students circulating between the US and Mexican schools.

Ziga has authored numerous books, including the recent Reconocimiento, Inclusin y Justicia Escolares (School Recognition, Inclusion and Justice; 2020) and Nias y Nios en la Migracin de Estados Unidos a Mxico: La Generacin 0.5 (Children in the Migration From the United States to Mexico: The 0.5 Generation; 2019). His most recent articles have been published in Ethnic and Racial Studies (2020), Childrens Geographies (2020), and Migraciones Internacionales (2018).

He was awarded the 2018 AERA's Division G Henry T. Trueba Award for Research Leading to the Transformation of the Social Contexts of Education. Zigas latest research project is titled International Migration and School Exclusion.

Among Zigas previous professional roles, he was Dean of Research and Extension, Universidad de Monterrey, from 20122015, and Dean of the School of Education and Humanities at Universidad de Monterrey in 20022012. He has served as a visiting professor at several universities around the world.