University professors Susanna Loeb, Kenneth Wong, Matthew Kraft and John Papay were named in the 2019 Rick Hess Straight Up Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings Jan. 9.
The list ranks the top 200 U.S. university scholars who most influenced “educational practice and policy” last year, according to an Education Week article written by Hess. Loeb was listed 104th, Wong tied at 143rd, and Kraft and Papay numbered 166th and 190th respectively, according to the ranking. A selection committee of 29 university professors chose the scholars, according to the article. The committee took a variety of categories into account, including the number of widely cited works written by the scholar, the number of times the scholar has been quoted or mentioned in U.S. newspapers and whether the scholar’s work has been utilized by a member of Congress, according to Hess’s breakdown of the selection process.
“It’s exciting that so many of our faculty are being recognized,” said Tracy Steffes, chair of the University’s Department of Education. The department’s goal is to “both advance scholarship and have an impact in the real world of education policy,” and Loeb, Kraft, Papay and Wong have been working with these goals in mind for years, Steffes added.