Laura S. Hamilton

Laura S. Hamilton is senior associate at the Center for Assessment. She conducts work on education policy, assessment, youth development, and civic learning, providing evidence-based guidance for practitioners and policymakers to ensure that all young people are prepared to succeed and thrive. She was formerly senior director of Education Measurement and Assessment at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and led research on innovative approaches to measurement and assessment across education, workforce, and community development. Her work has focused on education policy, teaching, education technology, youth development, and civic learning, with an emphasis on evidence-based guidance for practitioners and policymakers. She was formerly associate vice president of research centers at Educational Testing Service (ETS) and led research on assessment and learning across K–12 and postsecondary education, workforce development, and language assessment, and served as Eignor executive editor. She also held the distinguished chair in learning and assessment at the RAND Corporation and co-directed the American Educator Panels. Hamilton has served on numerous expert committees and panels, including the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, multiple National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committees, and technical advisory groups for state assessment programs. She has held editorial roles with multiple academic journals and received the Joseph A. Zins Distinguished Scholar Award for her work on whole-child development. Hamilton earned her MS in statistics and PhD in educational psychology from Stanford University.

updated 2026