Ranked: The Top 10 Most Influential Public Figures in Education for 2024

Yesterday, the 2024 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings were revealed. Education research encompasses a variety of work, and readers have shown a keen interest in how scholars fare within their specific fields of study. Today, we will highlight the top 10 scholars in five different disciplinary categories. (For a detailed explanation of the scoring process, please refer to Wednesday’s post.)

There can sometimes be uncertainty when determining a scholar’s discipline. In most cases, research assistants rely on CVs and primarily consider the scholar’s degree. In a few cases where this wasn’t sufficient, a judgment call was made. If you believe any of the judgments are incorrect, please let us know, and adjustments will be made for next year.

You can view each chart below.

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

With that, we conclude the 2024 Edu-Scholar Rankings. Next week, we will resume our regular programming.

Frederick Hess is the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and an executive editor of Education Next.

This post was originally published on Rick Hess Straight Up.