She is a Regents' Professor Emeritus of education policy and measurement, statistics, and research methodology at Arizona State University.
Going against advice to become a high school teacher, Smith returned to the University of Colorado Boulder to earn a PhD in counseling psychology.
Interviews conducted by Morton Hunt revealed that Smith worked along Glass in locating the studies, constructing the sample, assessing the materials, coding, and calculating effect sizes.
[3][4] Smith and Glass were later co-principal investigators on several important studies using meta-analyses in psychology,[5] and together with Thomas Miller, published the book Benefits of Psychotherapy in 1980.
Later on, Smith became a faculty member at Arizona State University, where her research interests focused on school and education policy.