Rebecca D. Silverman

Rebecca D. Silverman is the Judy Koch Professor of Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE). She began her career in education as an elementary school teacher in her hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana. Passionate about supporting children’s literacy development, she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in language and literacy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She taught in the Department of Special Education at the University of Maryland before starting at the Stanford GSE in 2018.

Dr. Silverman’s research focuses on language and literacy development in early childhood and elementary school. In particular, her work has contributed to the research base on (a) supporting vocabulary and other aspects of language that are critical to reading and writing and (b) using multimedia and educational technology to facilitate literacy. She is currently involved in projects related to language-based instruction for multilingual learners (https://www.clavescurriculum.net/), computer-adaptive assessment of language and literacy skills (https://roar.stanford.edu/), and the effectiveness of a supplemental digital literacy program (https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=5970). Dr. Silverman leads the Language to Literacy Research Lab (https://langlitlab.stanford.edu/) and is engaged in research-practice partnerships in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Dr. Silverman’s teaching focuses on bridging research and practice. She has taught pre-service general and special education teachers at the undergraduate and graduate levels; she has led professional development on research-based practices for supporting language and literacy for in-service early childhood and elementary school educators; and she has mentored numerous doctoral students who will serve as the next generation of researchers and teacher educators. She has also taught internationally, having been a Fulbright Scholar in Myanmar.

Dr. Silverman has been active in service to the field. She has been on the Editorial Board of such journals as Reading Research Quarterly and The Reading Teacher, and she currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Elementary School Journal (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/esj/about). She also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the International Literacy Association (https://www.literacyworldwide.org/about-us/our-leadership) and the Center for Literacy and Learning (https://www.mycll.org/). She is an advisor for such organizations as Sesame Workshop and the Public Broadcasting Service, and she participates in working groups for the California State Board of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences. She is an affiliate of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning (https://acceleratelearning.stanford.edu/) and the Stanford Center on Early Childhood (https://earlychildhood.stanford.edu/), and she is a faculty advisor with the Haas Center for Public Service (https://haas.stanford.edu/) and Ravenswood Reads (https://haas.stanford.edu/student-programs/education-partnerships/ravenswood-reads).