About

Sean Darling-Hammond is an Assistant Professor of Community Health Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. His research explores how K-12 practices such as restorative practices, exclusionary discipline, and school policing impact student mental health, with a focus on identifying policy pathways to expand health equity. He seeks to leverage his backgrounds in education, psychology, econometrics, and law to promote health and wellbeing by identifying practices that enhance student wellbeing across diverse backgrounds and social policies that reduce racial bias. His work has been funded by prominent institutions including the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, and the American Education Research Association. Darling-Hammond's research has been published in leading journals such as Science Advances, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Nature Human Behavior, and has been cited extensively in over 700 research articles. His studies include analyzing the impact of school discipline policies on Black students, evaluating restorative practices' effects on academic and disciplinary outcomes, and conducting randomized controlled trials on interventions aimed at reducing racial disparities. Prior to his current appointment, he served as an Assistant Professor at UCLA and as the Director of Research for a mission-driven message consulting firm.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Econometrics
• Engineering
• Mathematics education
• Social psychology
• Applied psychology
• Engineering ethics
• Law
• Economics
• Criminology
• Mathematics
• Psychiatry
• Gerontology
• Medicine
• Demography
• Pedagogy

Selected publications

• “I felt good being up here!” Empirically evaluating what happens when students gain exposure to a core restorative practice

  2025-07-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Conflict resolution—a core restorative practice—is theorized to strengthen scholastic relationships and reduce stress, supporting improvements in behavior, academic performance, health, and school climate. Federal support for conflict resolution has fluctuated, leading some schools to invest in, and others to disinvest from, these practices. This research exploits variation between schools (across space) and within schools (over time) to estimate the effects of changes in student exposure to conflict resolution practices. We first track over 30,000 California students from 5th to 6th grade and find that increases in exposure are linked to higher academic achievement, reduced suspensions, and smaller related racial disparities. We then analyze data from 200+ middle schools and find that increases in conflict resolution are associated with reductions in misbehavior, depression, and substance use, and growth in GPA and school climate. We conclude by exploring directions for future research and discussing the policy implications of these findings.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• To Reduce Bias, Marinate for 11 Days? A Randomized Controlled Evaluation of a Multi-Day Racial Equity Challenge

  Research Square · 2025-02-12

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Determinants of dental absenteeism among young children in California: A logistic regression analysis of CHIS 2017–2022

  Research Square · 2025-12-30

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Rooted in identity: racial centrality buffers the effects of chronic stress on suicide outcomes among Black Americans

  Ethnicity and Health · 2025-09-18

  article1st authorCorresponding

  OBJECTIVES: Black Americans have experienced a rapid rise in suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts, yet little research has examined whether chronic stress, a well-established driver of mental health disparities, contributes to these suicide outcomes. Chronic stress refers to the persistent, cumulative burdens of daily life shaped by structural racism, making it particularly harmful for Black Americans. Social stress theory emphasizes the importance of psychosocial resources in mitigating the effects of chronic stress. Racial centrality is a culturally grounded measure of racial identity that is related to myriad mental health outcomes. We review data from 627 Black adults in the Nashville Stress and Health Study to ascertain relationships between chronic stress, racial centrality, and suicide outcomes among Black Americans and evaluate whether racial centrality might serve as a buffer against suicide. DESIGN: An analysis of variance test (ANOVA) explored whether racial centrality was related to chronic stress. Weighted logistic regressions predicted suicide outcomes as a function of chronic stress, racial centrality, and the interaction of the two. RESULTS: Racial centrality was negatively associated with chronic stress. Suicide outcomes were predicted by chronic stress. Racial centrality served as a buffer, negatively moderating the relationship between chronic stress and suicide. CONCLUSION: These findings underscore chronic stress as a critical, understudied risk factor for Black suicide outcomes and highlight racial centrality as a culturally meaningful protective factor with implications for identity-affirming prevention strategies.

  PublisherDOI

• <p>The Bridge and the Wrecking Ball: Why the Assault on Disparate Impact Analysis is a Threat to Public Health</p>

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Radical Inclusion: The Practices and Approaches of Three Districts That Made Exclusion Rare for Students of All Backgrounds

  2025-07-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Black students continue to face disproportionate exposure to harmful exclusionary practices. Research documents many districts where implementation of alternative policies preceded reductions in overall, but not Black, discipline rates. We thus identified “radically inclusive” districts where exclusion is rare, too, for Black students, then leveraged semi-structured interviews to identify the practices and implementation approaches educational leaders leveraged to achieve this outcome. We found that radically inclusive leaders implemented relationship-oriented practices in synergistic ways; co-created change, cultivated a culture of expansive empathy; communicated proactively with parents to avoid backlash; leveraged disciplinary frameworks that prioritized inclusion; ensured widespread educator mastery through sweeping down payments and serial investments; approached incidents of misbehavior as teachable moments; and expressed unequivocal commitments to sustained implementation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A School Mental Health Provider Like Me: Links Between Peer Racial Harassment, Depressive Symptoms, and Race-Matched School Counselors and Psychologists

  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · 2025-04-03 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Legal scholarship and caselaw suggest that exposure to peer racial harassment in school (PRHS) harms student mental health and can derail students' academic trajectories. Legal precedents call on schools to intervene to reduce student exposure to PRHS when feasible. However, little quantitative social science has explored the impacts of PRHS, explored whether exposure to PRHS varies by racial group, or identified structural factors that may protect against PRHS. We review data from over 350,000 California 6th-12th-grade students in nearly 1000 schools and estimate that exposure to PRHS is related to a twenty-percentage-point-higher depressive symptom rate for students of all racial groups, that Black students are significantly more likely to experience PRHS, that being in a school with a race-matched school counselor or psychologist is related to lower rates of both PRHS and depressive symptoms, but that White students are more likely than students of other backgrounds to be in a school where the mental health workforce reflects their racial background. The results suggest a need to reduce exposure to PRHS, particularly for Black students, and that expanding the diversity of school mental health providers could be a pathway to protecting students against PRHS and its attendant harms.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• “I felt good being up here!” Empirically evaluating what happens when students gain exposure to a core restorative practice

  2024-01-18

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Conflict resolution—a core restorative practice—is theorized to strengthen scholastic relationships and reduce stress, supporting improvements in behavior, academic performance, health, and school climate. Federal support for conflict resolution has fluctuated, leading some schools to invest in, and others to disinvest from, these practices. This research exploits variation between schools (across space) and within schools (over time) to estimate the effects of changes in student exposure to conflict resolution practices. We first track over 30,000 California students from 5th to 6th grade and find that increases in exposure are linked to higher academic achievement, reduced suspensions, and smaller related racial disparities. We then analyze data from 200+ middle schools and find that increases in conflict resolution are associated with reductions in misbehavior, depression, and substance use, and growth in GPA and school climate. We conclude by exploring directions for future research and discussing the policy implications of these findings.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• “I felt good being up here!” Shifts in student exposure to restorative practices

  2024-01-18

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Schools across the country have adopted and expanded their use of restorative practices. Many students are, therefore, seeing increases in their levels of exposure to restorative practices. Proponents may expect that students who see these increases will experience academic and disciplinary benefits. But is this the case? This research leverages temporal and spatial variation in restorative practice exposure to estimate how these practices relate to academic and disciplinary outcomes. We follow over 30,000 California students from 5th to 6th grade and find that increases in exposure to restorative practices relate to improved academic achievement, declines in exposure to discipline, and declines in racial disparities in both measures. School-level increases in restorative practice utilization, meanwhile, relate to declines in misbehavior, depressive symptoms, and substance abuse; and increases in GPA and school climate. We conclude with recommendations regarding how to expand exposure to these practices in ways that realize intended outcomes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• No Matter How You Slice It, Black Students Are Punished More: The Persistence and Pervasiveness of Discipline Disparities

  AERA Open · 2024-01-01 · 26 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Years ago, a groundbreaking review of student data from the 2013–2014 school year indicated that Black students were overrepresented among those experiencing punishment in a variety of contexts. In the intervening decade, new data has emerged, schools have implemented policies to reduce racial disparities, researchers have highlighted new methods of measuring disparities, and pundits have reignited debates about the degree and pervasiveness of disparities. Clarity is needed. Are Black students experiencing more exclusion and punishment than their peers? If so, of what kinds and in what contexts? This article responds by reviewing the most recent federal data, measuring Black overrepresentation across six types of punishment, three comparison groups, 16 subpopulations, and seven types of measurement. We generate 1,581 unique estimates of Black overrepresentation and find evidence that, no matter how you slice it, Black students are overrepresented among those punished. We conclude with policy recommendations to reduce widespread and enduring racial disparities.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Kristen Holmquist

  Berkeley College

  20 shared

• Eli K. Michaels

  University of California, Berkeley

  5 shared

• Sebastian Achter

  Universität Hamburg

  4 shared

• Cendri A. Hutcherson

  University of Toronto

  4 shared

• Qi Wang

  Cornell University

  3 shared

• Thu T. Nguyen

  Brown University

  3 shared

• Jason A. Okonofua

  3 shared

• Eugene M. Caruso

  3 shared

Education

• PhD Student, Goldman School of Public Policy

  University of California Berkeley Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy

  2022

• JD, Law

  University of California Berkeley School of Law

  2014

• BA, Sociology

  Harvard University

  2006

Awards & honors

• UC Berkeley, Marcus Foster Fellowship
• UC Berkeley, Graduate Diversity & Community Fellow
• UC Berkeley, Empirical Legal Scholars (BELS) Fellowship
• UC Berkeley, Mentored Research Award
• Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM),…