Dr. Donna Y. FordA new national rating released Wednesday identifies the top 200 university‑based scholars who exerted the greatest public influence on U.S. education policy and practice over the past year, highlighting a group that includes several prominent Black educators whose work has shaped debates on equity, higher education, and school reform.
Now in its 16th year, the ranking measures scholars’ reach beyond academia using indicators such as media citations, book sales, policy references, and congressional mentions.
Unlike traditional academic rankings focused on research output alone, the RHSU list aims to capture how frequently scholars’ ideas appear in public discourse and policymaking. Eligible scholars must hold a formal university affiliation and focus primarily on education.
Among those recognized this year are several prominent Black educators whose work has gained national traction. They include Dr. Shaun Harper, a University of Southern California professor; Drs. Donna Y. Ford and James L. Moore III of The Ohio State University; Dr. Jerlando F.L. Jackson, Dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University; Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, Professor Emerita at University of Wisconsin-Madison; Drs. Ivory A. Tolson and Leslie Fenwick of Howard University and Dr. Bettina Love of Teacher's College, Columbia University, among others. Dr. Jamal Watson
Dr. Jamal Watson, Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at Trinity Washington University and the former executive editor of Diverse: Issues In Higher Education (which has since been renamed The EDU LEDGER), also made the list for the second year in a row. Watson is the author of The Student Debt Crisis: America's Moral Urgency.
Scholars were scored across eight categories, yielding a maximum of 200 points. Measures include:
Dr. Donna Y. Ford
Dr. Jamal Watson
Dr. Jamal Watson
