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Photo of Stanford GSE Dean Deborah Stipek

Photo of Stanford GSE Faculty

Stipek, Deborah

Deborah Stipek
Deborah Stipek
Academic Title 
Professor
Other Titles 

Judy Koch Professor of Education

Contact Information
(650) 725-9090
CU
Program Affiliations 
DAPS
Research Interests 
Achievement and Motivation
Charter Schools
Early Childhood Education
Elementary Education
Grading Policy
Motivation to Learn
Policy
Policy to Improve Research

Achievement motivation, early childhood and elementary education, school reform.

Dr. Stipek's scholarship concerns instructional effects on children's achievement motivation, early childhood education, elementary education and school reform. In addition to her scholarship, Dr. Stipek has an interest in policies affecting children and education. She served for five years on the Board on Children, Youth and Families at the National Research Council; she was the Chair of National Research Council Committee for Increasing High School Students' Engagement and Motivation to Learn and she directed the MacArthur Foundation Network on Teaching and Learning. While a professor at UCLA, Dr. Stipek served as Director of the Corinne Seeds University Elementary School and the Urban Education Studies Center.

"Teachers can motivate students only if they themselves are motivated. They can make students feel valued and secure only if they feel valued and secure; they can foster enthusiasm for learning in students only if they are enthusiastic about teaching. The school culture can make or break a teacher in the same way that the classroom culture can support or undermine students' efforts to learn."

- from her book, Motivation to Learn: From Theory to Practice

  • PhD (Developmental Psychology), Yale University, 1977
  • BS (Psychology), University of Washington, 1972

I. James Quillen Dean and Professor of Education (2001 - 2011; April 1, 2014 - )
Professor, School of Education (1995 - )

Professor, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles (1977-2000)

Congressional Science Fellow, Society for Research in Child Development, Office of Senator Bill Bradley (1983-1984)

Co-Director, NIMH Training Program in Applied Human Development

Director, Corinne Seeds University Elementary School (UCLA Laboratory School)

Director, Urban Education Studies Center

Motivation to Learn: Integrating Theory and Practice (4th edition, 2002)

Motivated Minds: Raising Children to Love Learning (with K. Seal, 2001)

Constructive and Destructive Behavior: Implications for Family, School, and Society (with A. Bohart, 2001)

Currently she is completing a longitudinal study which followed children from kindergarten through fifth grade in three low-income communities in three different states.