Gene V Glass | |
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 Gene V Glass (2010) | |
| Born | (1940-06-19)June 19, 1940 (age 85) |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Known for | Developing the statistical method "Meta-analysis" |
| Spouse(s) | ;Mary Lee Smith (m. 1977); |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater |
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| Thesis | Resolution of Infallible Variables into Common Factors and Principal Components (1965) |
| Academic work | |
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Gene V Glass (born June 19, 1940) is an Americanstatistician and researcher working ineducational psychology and thesocial sciences. According to the science writerMorton Hunt, he coined the term "meta-analysis" and illustrated its first use in his presidential address to the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco in April, 1976. The most extensive illustration of the technique was to the literature onpsychotherapy outcome studies, published in 1980 byJohns Hopkins University Press under the titleBenefits of Psychotherapy byMary Lee Smith, Gene V Glass, and Thomas I. Miller. Gene V Glass is a Regents' Professor Emeritus atArizona State University in both the educational leadership and policy studies and psychology in education divisions, having retired in 2010 from theMary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education. From 2011 to 2020, he was a senior researcher at theNational Education Policy Center,[1] a research professor in the School of Education at theUniversity of Colorado Boulder, and a lecturer in the Connie L. Lurie College of Education atSan Jose State University. In 2003, he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Education.[2]
Glass was born inLincoln, Nebraska and educated in the Lincoln Public School system, graduating from Lincoln Northeast High School in 1958. He attended Nebraska Wesleyan University from 1958 to 1960 and theUniversity of Nebraska from 1960 to January, 1962, earning a bachelor's degree with a joint major in mathematics and German. He worked as a research assistant forRobert E. Stake at UNL from spring 1961 until graduation. At Stake's suggestion, he chose to immediately enroll in graduate school. He entered the PhD program in statistics, measurement and experimental design at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in February 1962. He graduated with a PhD in Educational Psychology in May, 1965, having studied withJulian C. Stanley, Chester W. Harris, and Henry F. Kaiser. His doctoral dissertation, entitled Alpha Factor Analysis of Infallible Variables, won the Creative Talent award in Psychometrics given by the American Institutes for Research for 1966. In August 1965, he joined Stake and other colleagues as an assistant professor in the Center for Instructional Research and Curriculum Evaluation at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he taught for two years before moving to the University of Colorado Boulder. He was promoted to professor at CU-Boulder in 1970. In 1986, Glass joined the faculty of theArizona State University inTempe, Arizona, from which he retired in 2010. He holds the title of Regents' Professor Emeritus from Arizona State University. In 2011, he joined the faculty of the School of Education at theUniversity of Colorado Boulder as a research professor. He has served as a senior researcher in the National Education Policy Center since 2011. From 2015 to 2019, he served as a lecturer in the Connie L. Curie College of Education atSan José State University.
In 1970, he published his first book,Statistical Methods in Education and Psychology, with his adviser Julian C. Stanley as co-author. The book, which was started in 1964 while Glass was still a graduate student, went through three editions, the most recent having been published in 1996 with Kenneth D. Hopkins as co-author. In all, as of 2010 his[3] professional résumé lists some 23 books and more than 250 articles, reviews and reports.
His scholarly contributions are divided into three periods: 1964–1974 statistical methods including contributions to factor analysis and meta-analysis; 1975–1985 psychotherapy outcome research; 1986–2010 education policy analysis. In addition, Glass has been an active editor of scholarly journals: 1968–1970Review of Educational Research, 1978–1980Psychological Bulletin (Editor for Methodology),1984–1986American Educational Research Journal (Co-Editor with Mary Lee Smith and Lorrie A. Shepard). In recent years he has championed the cause of open access to scholarly literature, having created in 1993 the ("free-to-read") online journalEducation Policy Analysis Archives[4] and in 1998 the multi-lingual online book review journalEducation Review,[5] both of which journals remained in continuous publication in 2025.
In 2006, he was honored with the Distinguished Contributions to Educational Research Award of theAmerican Educational Research Association. In 2008, he published[6]Fertilizers, Pills & Magnetic Strips: The Fate of Public Education in America in which contemporary education debates are seen as the result of demographic and economic trends throughout the 20th Century. In 2014, Glass co-authored with David C. Berliner the book50 Myths and Lies That Threaten America's Public Schools.
One type ofeffect size estimator,g, was named after Glass byLarry V. Hedges.
