When it comes to designing education policy for future generations, there’s one thing that matters above all else: it must be based on scientific evidence. That’s the view of Professor Larry Hedges, one of the most influential applied statisticians in the world. He’s spent decades conducting wide-ranging research across education to give policymakers the data they need to make rigorous, impartial decisions.

A leading voice in the fields of education statistics and evaluation, Larry’s carried out research in areas such as the correlation between schools’ access to resources and student performance. On a larger scale, his transformational statistical methods for meta-analysis have been used to highlight common themes and trends in education for policymakers and decision-makers and presented evidence for ‘what works’ in the field of education. One of his books, Statistical Methods for Meta-analysis, remains the primary reference point for many researchers since being published in 1985.

Larry’s renown in the fields of education research and evaluation is reflected in his many achievements: he was nominated by President Barack Obama to the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences in 2012; he’s a member of the National Academy of Education and of the Society for Research in Educational Effectiveness; and he’s a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Statistical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Educational Research Association. In 2023, he was awarded the World Cultural Council “José Vasconcelos” World Award of Education.