Mary Lee Smith

Mary Lee Smith is an American researcher and academic whose work has spanned psychology, research methodology and education reform. She is Regents Professor Emeritus of education policy and measurement, statistics and research methodology at Arizona State University. She studied at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she earned a PhD in counseling psychology, and later joined its faculty in research methodology. With Gene Glass she pioneered the use of meta-analysis for reporting research outcomes, and with Glass and Thomas Miller she published The Benefits of Psychotherapy in 1980. At Arizona State her research turned to school and education policy, including the 2003 book Political Spectacle and the Fate of American Schools.