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Rick Hess offers discusses matters of policy, politics, research, and reform in opinion essays and on the Education Week Opinion blog, Rick Hess Straight Up.
The director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute think tank (AEI), Hess is the author of many books, including Getting Education Right: A Conservative Vision for Improving Early Childhood, K–12, and College (Teachers College Press, 2024), which he co-authored with Michael Q. McShane, and A Search for Common Ground: Conversations About the Toughest Questions in K–12 Education (Teachers College Press, 2021), which he co-authored with Pedro A. Noguera.
In addition to his work in the realm of policy, he has taught high school and college.