McCourt Faculty Named to AEI’s Edu-Scholar Influence Rankings

Congratulations to McCourt professor Nora E. Gordon and McCourt affiliated professor Jane Hannaway, who have both been named to the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings.

This exercise, conducted by AEI’s director of education policy studies, Education Week blogger, and former McCourt School adjunct professor Frederick M. Hess, spotlights the top 200 education scholars who move ideas from academic journals into the national conversation.

Using nine metrics, Hess calculated how much university-based academics contributed to public discussions of education.

“One small way to encourage academics to step into the fray and revisit academic norms is, I think, by doing more to recognize and value those scholars who engage in public discourse,” explains Hess. “As I see it, the extraordinary policy scholar excels in five areas: disciplinary scholarship, policy analysis and popular writing, convening and shepherding collaborations, providing incisive media commentary, and speaking in the public square. This whole endeavor is admittedly an imperfect exercise. Of course, the same can be said about college rankings, NFL quarterback ratings, or international scorecards of human rights. Yet such efforts convey real information and help spark useful discussion.”