Today, we unveil the 2024 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, ranking the 200 university-based scholars in the United States who did the most last year to shape educational practice and policy. The list includes the top 150 finishers from last year, augmented by at-large nominees chosen by the 39-member Selection Committee. So, without further ado, here are the 2024 rankings (scroll through the chart to see all names and scores).
[Click to open in a new tab.]
For more on the committee, selection process, and methodological particulars, you can check out yesterday鈥檚 post.
The top scorers are all familiar names to folks working in education. Topping the rankings this year was Harvard鈥檚 Howard Gardner, Columbia鈥檚 John McWhorter, University of Southern California鈥檚 Pedro Noguera (full disclosure: Noguera and I co-authored in 2021 and jointly hosted the 鈥淐ommon Ground鈥� during 2021 and 2022), and Stanford鈥檚 Carol Dweck and Jo Boaler. Rounding out the top 10 were the University of Pennsylvania鈥檚 Angela Duckworth (full disclosure: Duckworth blogs for EdWeek), Stanford鈥檚 Linda Darling-Hammond, Harvard鈥檚 Raj Chetty, University of Virginia鈥檚 Daniel Willingham, and University of Southern California鈥檚 Shaun Harper.
Stanford placed six scholars in the top 20; Harvard had three; and Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Virginia, and UC Berkeley each had two. Overall, Harvard led with 26 ranked scholars; Stanford was second, with 17; and UCLA was third, with 11. All told, there were 58 universities with at least one ranked scholar.
Once again, the most popular books from the Edu-Scholars are many of the same ones as previous years. Emily Oster鈥檚 2014 volume Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong鈥攁nd What You Really Need to Know was the top performer on the list. Carol Dweck鈥檚 Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2007) took second place. Other popular titles included: Howard Gardner鈥檚 Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (2011), Richard Rothstein鈥檚 The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (2017), Angela Duckworth鈥檚 Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (2016), and Gholdy Muhammad鈥檚 Unearthing Joy: A Guide to Culturally and Historically Responsive Curriculum and Instruction (2023).
If readers want to argue the construction, reliability, or validity of any or all of these metrics, feel free. This whole endeavor is an imprecise, imperfect exercise. Of course, the same is true of college rankings, NFL quarterback ratings, or international scorecards of human rights. Yet, for all their imperfections, such efforts convey real information and help spark useful discussion. I hope these can do the same. And, finally, it should go without saying that individuals can be influential in problematic or destructive ways. This is an attempt to gauge influence, not the merits of a scholar鈥檚 contribution.
I welcome thoughts and questions and am happy to entertain any and all suggestions. So, take a look and have at it.
Tomorrow, we鈥檒l break down the top 10 faculty in each discipline.
