Gloria Jean Ladson-Billings (born 1947) is an American pedagogical theorist and teacher educator known for her work in the fields of culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory, and the pernicious effects of systemic racism and economic inequality on educational opportunities. Her book The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African-American Children is a significant text in the field of education. Ladson-Billings is Professor Emerita and formerly the Kellner Family Distinguished Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Ladson-Billings served as president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2005-2006. During the 2005 AERA annual meeting in San Francisco, Ladson-Billings delivered her presidential address, "From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools", in which she outlined what she called the "education debt", highlighting the combination of historical, moral, socio-political, and economic factors that have disproportionately affected African-American, Latino, Asian, and other non-white students. In 2021 she was elected a corresponding fellow of the British Academy. Biography Gloria Jean Ladson was born in Philadelphia, Pa. and was educated in the Philadelphia public school system. She obtained her B.S. in Education at Morgan State University in 1968 and her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Washington in 1972. She went on to complete her PhD in Curriculum and Teacher Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education in 1984. Her dissertation titled Citizenship and values: An ethnographic study of citizenship and values in a black school setting was conducted under the supervision of Richard E. Gross. In 1995, Ladson-Billings became the first Black woman to be tenured as a professor in UW–Madison’s School of Education. She also served as the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs prior to her retirement in January 2018. In 2015, Ladson-Billings was awarded the AERA Social Justice in Education Award. Other prestigious awards include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Benjamin Banneker Association of the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (2016), the Brock Prize for Education Innovation (2012),and the George and Louise Spindler Award from the Council on Anthropology and Education (2004).Ladson-Billings is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Education Debt Education debt is a theory developed by Ladson-Billings to attempt to explain the racial achievement gap. As defined by Professor Emeritus Robert Haveman, a colleague of hers, education