Arnetha Ball, the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Emerita, at Stanford, has been elected to the National Academy of Education (NAEd) for her outstanding contributions to education research and policy.

Ball is one of 16 scholars elected to the NAEd this year. The group, founded in 1965, produces reports on pressing issues in education and offers professional development programs that support the preparation of the next generation of scholars.

“These leaders are at the forefront of those helping to improve the lives of students in the United States and abroad,” NAEd president Gloria Ladson-Billings said in a statement.

Ball, who joined the Stanford faculty in 1999, directs the Race, Inequality and Language in Education (RILE) program at the GSE, which brings an interdisciplinary focus to major factors that influence educational attainment. Her research addresses the promise and challenges of improving education in culturally and linguistically diverse settings.

Ball has authored or co-edited seven books, including Multicultural Strategies for Education and Social Change and Raciolinguistics, an anthology exploring the role that language plays in shaping our ideas about race and culture. She is a former president of the American Educational Research Association and a past U.S. representative to the World Educational Research Association.

She received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science from University of Michigan and her PhD from Stanford. Before joining academia, she taught in preschool, elementary and secondary classrooms for more than 25 years.

Ball is among 18 other Stanford professors in the NAEd, as well as four members emeriti and one international associate.