Four Department of Education Reform Faculty Place in Prominent National Ranking

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Department of Education Reform faculty Robert Maranto, Jonathan Wai, Patrick J. Wolf and Gema Zamarro

Four professors in the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform are ranked among the 200 most influential education scholars in the country, according to a prominent ranking of impact published on Jan. 4 in Education Week.

The Rick Hess Straight Up Edu-Scholars Public Influence Ranking scores education policy professors based on the amount and reach of their publications and policy influence. The U of A tied for 11th in the country for the number of education policy scholars it placed in the rankings, published annually since 2011.

Situated in the university's College of Education and Health Professions, the Department of Education Reform has placed between one and three faculty in the Edu-Scholars ranking in each of the previous 12 years. This year the department placed four of its six regular faculty members on the list.

Patrick J. Wolf, interim department head, Distinguished Professor and Twenty-First Century Endowed Chair in School Choice, placed 74th in the rankings. Wolf has appeared on the Edu-Scholars list every year since it began. Robert Maranto, professor and Twenty-First Century Endowed Chair in Education Leadership, ranked 145th on this year's list. Gema Zamarro, professor and Twenty-First Century Endowed Chair in Teacher Quality, placed 169th. Jonathan Wai, assistant professor and Twenty-First Century Endowed Chair in Education Policy, placed 181st. Zamarro and Wai made their first appearances in the Edu-Scholar rankings this year. Wai is among the top five junior faculty in the country to make the list.

"I am thrilled that so many of our education policy faculty are recognized nationally for their impact," said Kate Mamiseishvili, interim dean of the College of Education and Health Professions. "This is merely the latest in a long list of achievements for the department and our college."

The Edu-Scholar rankings are based on a balanced scorecard designed to capture the various ways that education faculty can influence scholarship and public policy. Professors receive points for their Google Scholar H-index, published books, works listed on the published syllabi of other faculty, legacy media mentions, Twitter impact, and mention in the U.S. Congressional Record. Two hundred education policy faculty in the fields of education, economics, history, political science, and sociology are ranked each year, out of the estimated 20,000 faculty who qualify. If a ranked scholar placed in the top 150 the previous year, and remains in academia, they automatically are ranked the next year. New scholars are then added to the list of legacy scholars, based on the votes of a nominating committee, until the 200-person field is complete.

Only 10 universities had more ranked scholars than the University of Arkansas. Harvard placed the most Edu-Scholars on the list, with 25. Stanford was second with 16. The University of Virginia and UCLA tied for third with 10 ranked scholars. Teachers College at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania tied for fifth with eight Edu-Scholars. Brown and  UC-Berkeley tied for seventh, each with seven ranked faculty. Michigan State and Northwestern rounded out the top 10, both with five Edu-Scholars.

The U of A tied with six other universities for 11th place, with four faculty on the list. Those universities were Arizona State, Ohio State, Michigan, Washington, University of Texas-Austin and Vanderbilt. Forty-five other universities placed between one and three faculty members in the Edu-Scholars ranking.

The complete set of Edu-Scholar rankings can be accessed at Education Week.

About the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform: The mission of the Department of Education Reform is to advance education and economic development in Arkansas and nationwide by focusing on the improvement of K-12 schools. The Department of Education Reform is committed to producing and disseminating high-quality research that will inform policymakers, scholars, parents, teachers, administrators and the general public about policies and practices that could improve the performance of schools in Arkansas and nationwide.