Three scholars with ties to UW–Madison are receiving recognition in the annual Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, which spotlight the top 200 education scholars in the United States “who did the most last year to shape educational practice and policy.”
The Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, released on Jan. 8, are compiled by Rick Hess, an Education Week blogger who is the American Enterprise Institute’s director of Education Policy Studies. Hess’ rankings utilize a scoring formula 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 No. 11. 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.
Ranking No. 105 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. Gamoran currently is president of the William T. Grant Foundation, where he has he launched a new initiative to support research on reducing inequality in youth outcomes and has continued the Foundation’s ongoing work to improve the use of research evidence in policy and practice decisions that affect young people.
New to the list this year, Brian Burt is ranked No. 189. A professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis and director of Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory (Wei LAB), Burt uses qualitative methodological approaches to study the experience of graduate students and the institutional policies and practices that influence students’ pathways. This past fall he launched Black Males in Engineering, a project aimed at combating the shortage of Black men in STEM fields.
Hess acknowledges the construction of rankings is “an imprecise, imperfect exercise.” Yet, he argues, “for all their imperfections, such efforts convey real information and help spark useful discussion. I hope these can do the same.”