From time to time you’ll see me write about or reference the work of scholars who research the nitty gritty of education policy. These are the high falutin’ number-crunchers with big degrees who work at universities. Well, the venerable Rick Hess has revealed his 2012 Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings to measure more than 100 American academics’ contributions to last year’s education policy public debates.

Some are better known than others, which the list helps to sort out. To build out his index, Hess used Google Scholar ratings, book and article contributions, mentions in the education press and newspaper, and even mention in blogs (!) to lay out the rankings. Many — for good or ill — have graced the postings of Ed Is Watching (listed in rank order):

• 2. Diane Ravitch (NYU)
• 3. Eric Hanushek (Stanford)
• 6. Terry Moe (Stanford)
• 7. Paul Peterson (Harvard)
• 12. Caroline Hoxby (Stanford)
• 21. Jay Greene (Arkansas)
• 33. Daniel Willingham (Virginia)
• 36. David Figlio (Northwestern)
• 38. Thomas Kane (Harvard)
• 44. Paul Hill (Washington)
• 48. Patrick Wolf (Arkansas)
• 52. Kevin Welner (Colorado)
• 62. James Guthrie (SMU)
• 64. Michael Podgursky (Missouri)
• 71. John Witte (Wisconsin)
• 73. Robert Maranto (Arkansas) — He even co-authored an issue paper for my Education Policy Center friends!
• 77. Robin Lake (Washington)
• 80. Paul Teske (CU-Denver)
• 88. Martin West (Harvard)
• 94. Marguerite Roza (Washington)
• 114. Joshua Dunn (CU-Colorado Springs)

Look at that. Click on any of those links above to become educated about important research and commentary in the areas of school choice, digital learning, teacher evaluation and pay, school finance, teacher unionism, collective bargaining or more. It’s my pleasure to share some of this with my readers here.

Interestingly, 12 of the 21 names listed above were cited in Ed is Watching posts during 2011. So I am left to wonder just how much this little 5-year-old helped propel some academics higher in the Edu-Scholar Public Presence rankings? Ok, to be honest, probably not a lot. But maybe a few of them would be willing to share just a tiny bit of the credit.

Guess you could say I’m the most indirectly influential kid on the block! Enough about me, now go follow one or more of the links and get into the debate, and/or leave a comment about which edu-scholars have been overrated, underrated, etc….