Rick Hess

Rick Hess

Board Member

Senior Fellow & Director, American Enterprise Institute

As the resident scholar and director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, Rick Hess studies a range of K-12 and higher education issues. As an educator and political scientist, Rick has authored influential books such as Common Sense School Reform, Revolution at the Margins, and Spinning Wheels. He is also the author of the popular Education Week blog, “Rick Hess Straight Up.”

Rick also serves as the executive editor of Education Next, is a faculty associate with Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, and sits on the review board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education.


Most Recent Posts
Raising the Bar: NACSA’s Updated State Policy Recommendations
NACSA believes that strong laws enable strong authorizing. In turn, strong authorizing leads to strong public education outcomes for students, families, and communities. That’s why we regularly update our state...
A New Path Forward: NACSA’s Bold New School Application Guidance
I’ll never forget a foundational principle I learned nearly two decades ago, while authorizing in Indianapolis: It should be hard to gain approval to start a new charter school. But...
How to Start Updating Your New School Application to Reduce the Paper Burden
Most authorizers will need some time to make NACSA’s suggested improvements to their new school application process. Here are some ideas on where to start.  1. Focus on the vision...