UIC economist listed among most influential education scholars

Steven Rivkin, professor and head of economics. Photo: Joshua Clark/UIC Photo Services (select image for larger file)

University of Illinois at Chicago economist Steven Rivkin is one of the 200 most influential education scholars in the U.S., according to an annual ranking in Education Week.

Rivkin, professor and head of economics at UIC, was honored for helping shape public discussions of education last year.  He is listed at No. 134 on the 2015 Frederick Hess Edu-Scholar Public Influence Ranking that was recently released.

Hess, an Education Week blogger and the American Enterprise Institute’s director of educational policy studies, spotlights university-based scholars who move ideas from academic journals into the national conversation.”

The ranking of 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 total number of times the scholar was quoted or mentioned in the education press, online and in U.S. newspapers.

Rivkin, who joined the UIC faculty as department head in 2012, specializes in the economics of education, labor economics and public finance. He has published on issues including teacher quality, the benefits of smaller classes, and the effectiveness of charter schools. His recent grant funding and research focus on the quality of school leadership, teacher and principal evaluation, and charter schools.