Four people with ties to UW–Madison are receiving recognition in the annual Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings that are designed to spotlight the top 200 education scholars across the nation “who move ideas from academic journals into the national conversation.”
The Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, released on Jan. 4, are compiled by Frederick Hess, an Education Week blogger who is the American Enterprise Institute’s director of education policy studies. Hess’ rankings utilize a scoring rubric to calculate how much university-based academics contributed to public discussions of education.
Gloria Ladson-Billings, a professor emerita with the School of Education and the former Kellner Family Distinguished Chair in Urban Education with the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, is ranked 35th. Her research examines the cultural foundations of teaching and learning that leads to educational improvement for students who are most marginalized in schools. She also investigates critical race theory applications to education.
Checking in at No. 125 is Adam Gamoran, a professor emeritus with the School of Education’s Department of Educational Policy Studies and the former director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. He currently is president of the William T. Grant Foundation.
Suzanne Eckes, who holds the Susan S. Engeleiter Chair in Education Law, Policy, and Practice, is No. 153 on this list. A professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, Eckes focuses much of her research on how civil rights laws impact education policies in K-12 public schools.
And Jessica Calarco, an associate professor with UW–Madison’s Department of Sociology, is No. 168. Calarco’s research primarily uses qualitative methods to examine how systems of power and privilege perpetuate inequalities in education, health, and family decision-making.
“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 of the rankings. “As I see it, the extraordinary public scholar excels in five areas: disciplinary research, scholarly analysis, popular writing on policy and practice, convening and shepherding collaborations, 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.”