Today, we unveil the 2026 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, ranking the 200 university-based scholars in the United States who had the biggest impact on educational practice and policy last year. The list includes scholars who auto-qualified due to last year’s rankings, as well as nominees chosen by the 27-member selection committee. Without further ado, here are the 2026 rankings (You can scroll vertically and horizontally through the chart below to see all names and scores).
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For more on the selection committee, selection process, scoring, and other methodological particulars, you can check out yesterday’s post here.
The top scorers are all familiar names to those working in education. In order, the rankings are topped this year by the University of Pennsylvania’s Angela Duckworth, Columbia’s John McWhorter, the University of Southern California’s Shaun Harper, Rutgers’ Marybeth Gasman, and Stanford’s Jo Boaler. Rounding out the top 10 are Howard Gardner and Raj Chetty, both of Harvard, Carol Dweck of Stanford, David Yeager of the University of Texas at Austin, and Thomas Dee of Stanford University.
Stanford placed seven scholars in the top 20, while the University of Southern California, Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania each placed two. Columbia University, the University of Virginia, the University of Texas at Austin, Brown University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Rutgers University, and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville also each had a scholar in the top 20.
Overall, Harvard led with 25 ranked scholars, followed by Stanford with 18. Columbia and the University of California, Los Angeles tied for third with nine each. All told, there were 56 universities that had at least one ranked scholar.
Each year, perusing the edu-scholars’ most popular books can offer an especially illuminating snapshot as to what’s got traction in the field or with the broader book-buying public. This year, Carol Dweck’s Mindset – Updated Edition: Changing the Way You Think to Fulfill Your Potential was the top performer. Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance took second place. Other popular titles included: David Yeager’s 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People; Carol Ann Tomlinson’s How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse Classrooms, 3rd Edition; John McWhorter’s Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words; and With Faith in God and Heart and Mind: A History of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity by Eddie Cole and Derrick Alridge (co-authored with Maurice Hobson and Jim Harper, who don’t appear in the rankings).
If readers want to argue the construction, reliability, or validity of any or all of these metrics, have at it. This whole endeavor is an imprecise, imperfect exercise. Of course, the same is true of college rankings, NFL quarterback ratings, or international scorecards of human rights. Yet, for all their imperfections, such efforts convey real information and can help spark useful discussion. I hope these can do the same. Finally, it goes without saying that influence can be either positive or problematic. The rankings are an attempt to gauge influence, not the merits of a scholar’s contribution.
I welcome thoughts and questions and am happy to entertain any and all suggestions. So, take a look and have at it.
Tomorrow, we’ll break down the top 10 faculty in each discipline.
2026-01-07 05:01:00
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