Rick Hess is a resident scholar and the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he works on K–12 and higher education issues. He also founded and chairs AEI's Conservative Education Reform Network.

Hess's research and writings are found in many scholarly and popular periodicals, including Harvard Educational Review, Forbes, The Hill, Teachers College Record, Phi Delta Kappan, Education Week, Washington Post, and U.S. News and World Report. He also writes Education Week’s blog “Rick Hess Straight Up” and serves as an executive editor of Education Next. Hess taught education and public policy at Harvard, Georgetown, and Rice Universities and at the universities of Pennsylvania and Virginia.