Member Since 2009


Frederick Hess, AEI's director of education policy studies, is an educator, political scientist, author, and popular speaker and commentator. He has authored such influential books as Spinning Wheels, Revolution at the Margins, and Common Sense School Reform. A former public high school social studies teacher, he has also taught education and policy at universities including Georgetown, Harvard, Rice, the University of Virginia, and the University of Pennsylvania. He is executive editor of Education Next, a faculty associate with Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, and serves on the board of directors for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and on the review board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education. At AEI, Mr. Hess addresses a range of K-12 and higher education issues.

Published Articles & Media

Photo of Ken Campbell

How Baton Rouge School Parents Are Like Amazon Customers

"Schools are finding that they have to be responsive to the increasingly high expectations"
Natasha Lance Rogoff appears on set as producer of Ulitza Sesam in Moscow.

How to Get to Sesame Street—in 1990s Russia

A tale of perseverance, flexibility, and the conviction that a children’s show could matter for kids in a land of oppression
Photo of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

A Few Reflections on the AP African American History Clash

Governor DeSantis was right to criticize the course for commingling history and advocacy.
The Lyons Danse macabre at the Princeton University library, one of two surviving copies, contains the earliest depiction of a printing shop: one skeleton of death seizes the surprised compositor, another the pressman, and another, in adjacent scene, a dismayed bookseller standing at his counter.

Will ChatGPT Unflip the Classroom?

Teachers must ensure students are learning—and not just outsourcing tasks to artificial intelligence
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy

What Did the House Speaker Fight Mean? An Education in Civics Can Explain

Amid classroom fixation on activism, institutions also matter.
Illustration

2023 Edu-Scholar Public Influence: Top 10 Lists

Here’s how scholars fared when it came to particular fields of study
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The 2023 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings

64 universities had at least one ranked scholar
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The 2023 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Scoring Rubric

Simply making it onto the Edu-Scholar list is an accomplishment
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What It Takes to Be an Effective Public Scholar

The extraordinary public scholar excels in five vital areas
Teachers protest for stronger Covid-19 safety protocols outside Oakland Unified School District headquarters on Jan. 7, 2022, in Oakland, Calif.

The Locus of K–12 Coverage During the Pandemic, and After

Education reformers who want more media attention should be careful what they wish for

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