WMU prof listed among most influential education scholars

Contact: Paula M. Davis
Photo of Dr. Gary Miron.

Miron

KALAMAZOO—Western Michigan University Professor Gary Miron is one of the 200 most influential education scholars in the United States and the top 10 most influential in scholarship related to government and policy, according to an annual ranking that appears in Education Week.

Miron, professor of educational leadership research and technology, is a prolific and regularly cited expert on education policy and school reform. He is listed at No. 55 on the 2014 Rick Hess Straight Up Edu-Scholar Public Influence ranking that was recently released.

The publication also offered companion lists ranking scholars by field or discipline. Along with appearing on the overall list, Miron is ranked eighth nationally among the top 10 researchers in scholarship related to government and policy topics.

Among scholars from Michigan universities, he is third in the state behind two professors at the University of Michigan. Topping the list are academic researchers from Stanford, Harvard and New York universities.

Measuring public influence

Rick Hess, author of the Education Week blog that developed the list, says rankings acknowledge and honor university-based scholars in the United States "who are contributing most substantially to public debates about education."

The ranking of a scholar's public influence is based on a number of factors, including books authored and a "Google Scholar Score," which "gauges the number of articles, books or papers a scholar has authored that are widely cited." Other factors include the number of times a researcher is mentioned in the popular and education press.

Hess, who also is the American Enterprise Institute’s director of education policy studies, says "the rankings offer a useful, if imperfect, gauge of the public influence edu-scholars had in 2013. The rubric reflects both a scholar's body of academic work—encompassing the breadth and influence of their scholarship—and their footprint on the public discourse last year."

Gary Miron

Miron is a professor of evaluation, measurement and research at WMU. A faculty member since 1997, Miron has extensive experience evaluating school reforms and education policies in the United States and Europe. He has prepared and directed more than 60 evaluations and research studies that have been funded with grants and contracts from state and federal agencies as well as private foundations.