January 5, 2012—Curry School dean Robert Pianta was named the 19th most influential university-based scholar in the 2012 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings, published by Education Week. The rankings name the top 110 university-based scholars contributing to the public debate about education.
Curry professor and world renowned expert on differentiated instruction, Carol Tomlinson, was named number 27th on the list. Also included are former dean and Newton and Rita Meyers Professor in Economics of Education, David Breneman and professor of Education Policy Sarah E. Turner.
Michelle Young, professor in the Administration & Supervision program and director of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) also made the list.
Three faculty members associated with Curry research centers were also included in the list. Thomas Dee, professor of public policy and economics and James Ryan, distinguished professor of law and of civil liberties and human rights are both scholars with Curry’s Ed Policy Works Center. Daniel Willingham, professor of psychology at U.Va. and scholar with Curry’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, was also included on the list.
According to Education Week, the rankings seek to acknowledge excellence in “disciplinary scholarship, policy analysis and popular writing, convening and quarterbacking collaborations, providing incisive media commentary, and speaking in the public square” and recognize scholars “who effectively help to move ideas from the pages of barely-read journals into the national conversation around schools and schooling.”
The scoring rubric for the ranks were a combination of seven factors. The first, the Google Scholar score, measures publications in which the author is widely cited. Book points, the second, gathered the total number of books a scholar had either authored, co-authored or edited via Amazon. The third measure was the author’s highest-ranked book on Amazon. The last four was the number of times a scholar was quoted or mentioned in four areas: education press, blogs, newspapers and in the Congressional Record.
The group of 8 education scholars from U.Va. was the third largest group on the list, coming in behind only Stanford and Harvard.
For more information, visit http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2012/01/rhsu_exclusive_the_five-tool_policy_scholar_1.html
