Patrick McGuinn keeps spot as top education policy scholar
January 2020 – Drew University’s Patrick McGuinn has once again been named as one of the nation’s top education policy experts.
Education Week‘s annual Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings honors the top 200 education scholars who help bring ideas into the public consciousness.
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“It is a great honor for my work to be recognized alongside the most prolific education policy researchers at some of the nation’s most prestigious research universities,” said McGuinn, professor of political science and education.
The recognition marks the 10th consecutive year that McGuinn has earned a spot in the outlet’s rankings—every year since the list’s 2011 inception—and the professor has no plans of slowing down.
“I have produced a number of policy reports for Washington, D.C. think tanks from across the ideological spectrum including the Center for American Progress, the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the New America Foundation. I believe that this appeals to folks who want to see faculty reaching beyond the ivory tower and using their research to inform contemporary policy debates.”
McGuinn also serves as a senior research specialist with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education and is frequently quoted by major media outlets as a leading education policy expert, all of which help him bring academic ideas and research into the public sphere.
He hopes his research draws attention to the fact that “public education in America could and should be a great promoter of opportunity and social justice, but the unfortunate reality is that it all to often reinforces rather than ameliorates inequality in our society.”
Rick Hess, Director of Education Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, who compiles Education Week‘s rankings, uses nine metrics to quantify the degree that university academics impact the national conversation about education.
“As I see it, the extraordinary policy scholar excels in five areas,” said Hess. “Disciplinary scholarship, policy analysis and popular writing, convening and shepherding collaborations, providing incisive media commentary, and speaking in the public square.”
McGuinn certainly checks all the boxes.
