Economist Tim R. Sass Ranks Among Nation’s Most Influential Education Scholars

ATLANTA — Georgia State University economist Tim R. Sass ranks among the nation’s 200 top university‐based scholars who had the biggest influence on educational practice and policy last year, according to the 2024 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings.

The rankings highlight education scholars of any discipline who move ideas from academic journals into the national conversation. They are published annually in Education Week by blogger Rick Hess, director of education policy studies for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Hess uses eight metrics — Google Scholar score, book authorship, highest Amazon ranking, presence in college syllabi and 2023 mentions in education press, websites, U.S. newspapers and the Congressional Record — to calculate how university-based academics contribute to public discussions of education.

More than 20,000 university-based faculty examine educational questions in the U.S., according to the AEI. Sass ranks No. 157, among the top 1 percent of such scholars.

Sass is a Distinguished University Professor in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. He holds the W.J. Usery Chair of the American Workplace and is faculty director of the Metro Atlanta Policy Lab for Education in the Georgia Policy Labs. An applied microeconomist whose research focuses on the economics of education, his areas of interest include teacher labor supply, the measurement of teacher quality and school choice.

The Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings were created in 2010 to recognize scholars who work to move ideas into practice and policy. They are a data-informed effort to spur discussion about the nature of responsible public engagement — who’s doing a good job, how much these things matter and how to gauge a scholar’s contribution.

“One small way to encourage academics to step into the fray and revisit academic norms is, I think, by doing more to recognize and value those scholars who engage in public discourse,” Hess said. “As I see it, the extraordinary public scholar excels in five areas: disciplinary research, scholarly analysis, popular writing on policy and practice, convening and shepherding collaborations, and speaking in the public square.”

Learn more about the rankings at https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/rick-hess-straight-up.