Molly Faulkner-Bond has built her career around understanding and improving policies, assessments, and programs for students identified as English Learners, and amplifying that knowledge for the benefit of all students and educators.
At WestEd, Faulkner-Bond engages in both research and technical assistance activities, all of which are designed to increase the use and utility of educational research results, substantively impact teaching and learning, and improve educational outcomes for linguistically and culturally diverse learners. She supports a variety of stakeholders via several federally funded centers, including the Regional Educational Laboratories, the Regional Comprehensive Centers, the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, the National Charter School Resource Center, and the National Research and Development Center to Improve Education for Secondary English Learners. She also contributes to assessment work around equitable test design and use, and is the principal investigator of a federal grant to systematically review and analyze research on English Learner reclassification.
Prior to joining WestEd, Faulkner-Bond was a grant program officer at the Institute of Education Sciences, where she provided technical assistance and monitoring to applicants and recipients of multiyear research grants focused on improving educational opportunities and outcomes for English Learners. She has co-authored or co-edited three books — two on English Learners and one on educational assessment — and co-authored several articles on assessment validity and score reporting for English Learners and the general population.
Faulkner-Bond earned her undergraduate degree in philosophy from Harvard College and her PhD in research, educational measurement, and psychometrics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.