Darling-Hammond was one of several Obama campaign voices on K-12.

This from Ed Week:

President-elect Barack Obama made the first significant education appointment of his transition, naming a prominent education researcher and a frequently mentioned candidate for secretary of education to lead the review of federal education policy.

The appointment of Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond to the key transition role drew praise and criticism from different quarters of the Democratic Party.

Researchers and educators praised the appointment of Ms. Darling-Hammond, saying her expertise and background on improving teacher quality would inform the incoming administration’s efforts to recruit and retain new teachers...

But her critics, ...include Democrats who support aggressive accountability programs and the expansion of charter schools...