The rankings were compiled by Frederick M. Hess, director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and published in Education Week, where Hess writes a blog.

Darling-Hammond ...]]> The academic who contributed the most to public debates about schooling in 2011 was Stanford University education prof Linda Darling-Hammond, according to the RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings.

The rankings were compiled by Frederick M. Hess, director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and published in Education Week, where Hess writes a blog.

Darling-Hammond is one of six Stanford scholars among the top 15. (Harvard led New England with four of the top 15 nationally.) The rankings are based on articles and academic scholarship, book authorship and current book success, and presence in new and old media.

Besides writing an Education Week column, Hess is the author of several books including The Same Thing Over and Over: How School Reformers Get Stuck in Yesterday's Ideas.

Says Hess of the rankings scheme: "Bottom line: this is a serious but inevitably imperfect attempt to nudge universities, foundations, and professional associations to consider the merits of doing more to cultivate, encourage, and recognize contributions to the public debate."

Two-thirds of U.S. school districts eliminated personnel in the 2010-11 school year, and nearly three-quarters expected to cut more jobs in the 2011-12 school year, according to ...]]> A quarter-million jobs in education are in jeopardy next school year, according to the latest economic impact survey by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).

Two-thirds of U.S. school districts eliminated personnel in the 2010-11 school year, and nearly three-quarters expected to cut more jobs in the 2011-12 school year, according to the Projection of National Education Job Cuts for the 2011-12 School Year.

AASA surveyed school superintendents in May 2011. This sample size represents roughly 8% of U.S. school districts. Based on this representative sample, AASA projects that approximately 227,000 jobs are at risk of being cut in schools across the U.S.

The education job losses will translate into larger class sizes, pushing pupil‐to‐teacher ratios from the current 15.5-to-1, to 16.8-to-1, according to AASA.

In addition, the education job cuts will result in more than 67,ooo jobs lost in other sectors, for a total job loss of across all job sectors of 294,500.

For the past several years, NEJHE has published data from the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC) on the economic impact in New England of both K-12 schools and colleges and universities.