Category Archives: Ed. Research

A Critique of Rick Hess’ Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0

Rick Hess just released the 2013 version of his Edu-scholar Public Presence Rankings. He claims that these rankings are “…designed to recognize those university-based academics who are contributing most substantially to public debates about K-12 and higher education. The rankings offer a useful, if imperfect, gauge of the public impact edu-scholars had in 2012.” I’m [...] Read more »

communication, data, dissemination, Ed. Research, eduscholars, Hess, higher ed., public presence, research, RHSU, scholarship, social media

Modern scholarly communication in education: An Example

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0

I’ve written a bit about scholarly communication in education, and our need to modernize our modes and systems (see e.g. THIS and THIS and THIS and THIS…). This post offers an example of modern scholarly communication. At the heart of this “story” is Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab, Associate Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Sociology at the University [...] Read more »

AERA, digital, Ed. Research, modern scholarly communication, research, scholarship, social media, Storify, twitter

“Academic blogging” qua peer review

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0


Unless you live under a rock (or if you don’t track education policy matters through social media – same thing), you know about the “big” study about teacher effects that was conducted by Chetty, Friedman and Rockoff, disseminated through NBER and reported in multiple outlets, most notably the New York Times. This is an important [...] Read more »

Blogging, Ed. Research, peer-review, research, scholarly communication, scholarship

Best. Dissertation. Ever.

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0


Well, certainly the best one I’ve ever read (and I’ve read dozens). This is the dissertation recently defended by one of my new colleagues, Dr. Hilary Hughes-Decatur. It is an absolutely brilliant piece of work; it’s rich with issues to be explored, ranging from how we deal with “bodily-not-enoughness” in schools to how we elicit [...] Read more »

Ed. Research, higher ed.

To everything there is a season…except learning

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Jon Becker | Permalink 0


What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon it destroys our democracy. – John Dewey (1900, p. 3) I am by no means the best or wisest parent. However, lately, [...] Read more »

blog4reform, community, Ed. Policy, Ed. Research, education, equity, Equity / Discrimination, Learning, parenting, research, seasons, summer learning