Last week, 10 University education scholars were named to the RHSU Edu-Scholars Public Influence Rankings, which honors 200 academics across the country who contribute most to discourse on education.
Rick Hess Straight Up, or RHSU, is a popular education blog hosted by Education Week magazine.
Education Prof. Carol Tomlinson, Education Dean Robert Pianta and Psychology Prof. Daniel Willingham made the top 25 on the list, while Asst. Education Profs. Ben Castleman and Daphna Bassok, Education Profs. Sarah Turner, Jim Wyckoff, Michelle Young and David Breneman and Asst. Sociology Prof. Josipa Roksa comprised the seven other honored University faculty members.
“The University of Virginia plays a major role in influencing public policy in education throughout the United States,” said Pianta, who is 22nd in the rankings. “This is a tremendous accomplishment and demonstrates the quality of our faculty, not only in the Curry School but across the University.”
Former University faculty member Rick Hess compiled the rankings through analyzing a broad set of indicators, including publications, Internet contributions and citations. This is the fourth year the rankings have been released.
“I think the rankings will get University faculty to pay attention to how their work can be relevant to public discourse, which I think is a good thing, as it is likely to encourage some faculty to be more engaged,” Pianta said. “Over time I suspect this may change public discourse, hopefully in a direction in which research, scholarship and evidence play a greater role in decision-making.”
Faculty members distinguish themselves as candidates for the list not only through traditional methods, such as being published in a peer-reviewed journal, but also through advising government, serving on policy panels and giving briefings, Pianta said.
“We are seeing a lot of use of social media as a form of discourse and I think this is going to continue to increase,” Pianta said. “But it’s important to note in all of these forms of communication, a scholar's credibility should rest on the strength of their work from a scientific perspective.”
Not only do the rankings honor faculty members, but they also influence the discourse on education.
“It is important to me that the work we do as education scholars does penetrate decisions that affect educators and students, so I am glad that at least by one indicator, my work enters public discourse,” Pianta said. “[Education scholars] sometimes get criticized for being in the ‘ivory tower’ and not involved, so I think it’s important that there be ways of demonstrating that indeed our scholarship can be helpful to public decisions.”
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