Opinion Blog


Rick Hess Straight Up

Education policy maven Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute think tank offers straight talk on matters of policy, politics, research, and reform. Read more from this blog.

Policy & Politics Opinion

2024 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence: Top 10 Lists

Here are the top 10 scholars, ranked by their disciplines
By Rick Hess — January 05, 2024 1 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Yesterday, we unveiled the 2024 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. Of course, education research includes a lot of people doing very different kinds of work. Thus, over the years, readers have been intensely interested in how scholars fared within particular fields of study. Where scholars rank overall may be less telling than where they rank within their field. Today, we’ll report on the top 10 finishers for five disciplinary categories. (For a detailed discussion of how the scoring was done, see Wednesday’s post.)

Now, there can be ambiguity when it comes to determining a given scholar’s discipline. For the most part, my research assistants work off of CVs, relying primarily on a scholar’s degree. In the handful of cases where that didn’t suffice, I made a judgment call. If you think I’ve made the wrong call on someone, let me know, and we’ll do our best to make appropriate adjustments next year.

You can scroll through each chart below.

The tables pretty much speak for themselves. The top finisher in Curriculum, Instruction, and Administration was Jo Boaler; in Economics, Raj Chetty; in Government and Policy, Paul Peterson; in Psychology, Howard Gardner; and, in Sociology, Pedro Noguera. (Full disclosure: Noguera and I co-authored A Search for Common Ground in 2021 and jointly hosted the “Common Ground” podcast during 2021 and 2022.)

Well, that wraps up the 2024 Edu-Scholar Rankings. Next week, we’ll return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Related Tags:

The opinions expressed in Rick Hess Straight Up are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

Events

College & Workforce Readiness Webinar Data-Driven and District-Ready: What EdWeek Research Tells Us About the CTE Market
Discover how to sharpen your positioning in a fast-moving market of CTE with actionable strategies grounded in EdWeek Research Center data.
Classroom Technology Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: The Rewiring of Childhood With Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt, Catherine Price, and Adam Swinyard join Peter DeWitt on how to get students off devices and back to the basics of childhood.
Professional Development K-12 Essentials Forum Getting Professional Development to Stick
Join this free virtual event to explore best practices, funding, format, and timing for teacher and principal PD.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Funding Districts Brace for the Unexpected as Federal Funding Troubles Linger
Last year's formula funding delay has prompted some districts to budget more cautiously.
7 min read
Cafeteria worker Nuria Alvarenga serves lunch to students through a service window at Firebaugh High School in Lynwood, Calif. on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Demand for school lunches has increased after California guaranteed free meals to all students regardless of their family's income. Now, districts are preparing to compete with the fast food industry for employees after a new law took effect guaranteeing a $20 minimum wage for fast food workers.
A cafeteria worker serves students at Firebaugh High School in Lynwood, Calif., on April 3, 2024. School districts are increasingly uncertain about whether they can rely on federal education funds, $7 billion of which were delayed for weeks last July, prompting a more conservative approach to budgeting in some places.
Richard Vogel/AP
Education Funding Video Tornado Threats Are a Constant. But Funding for a Safe Room Is Lagging
A school district has waited four years and counting to begin work on a tornado shelter funded with federal dollars.
1 min read
Law & Courts Federal Judge Strikes Down Trump's $100,000 Fee on New H-1B Visas
Schools and states say filling teacher and doctor vacancies was hard enough before the fee hike.
3 min read
President Donald Trump talks with reporters before boarding Air Force One at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, early on June 9, 2026, as Environmental Protection Agency director Lee Zeldin, left, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum listen.
President Donald Trump talks with reporters before boarding Air Force One at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York early on June 9, 2026 as Environmental Protection Agency director Lee Zeldin, left, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum listen. A federal judge in Boston has struck down Trump's elevated, $100,000 fee for H-1B visas that employers use to hire foreign workers for hard-to-fill positions.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
States A State Puts Property-Tax Cuts on the Ballot This Fall—But Shields Schools
Florida lawmakers turned down a more sweeping property-tax reduction plan, leaving school taxes alone.
3 min read
A waterfront home, photographed on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Governor DeSantis has pushed property-tax reform for over a year. “The property tax has become a big, big burden for millions of people in this state,” he said on June 1 in highlighting his proposal, which would expand the homestead exemption for property taxes from the current $25,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028.
A waterfront home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., photographed on Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Gov. Ron DeSantis called a special legislative session this month to consider a major property-tax reduction measure. Lawmakers scaled it back to shield property taxes that make up almost half of school budgets statewide.
Phelan M. Ebenhack via AP