Joseph Mayer Rice

Joseph Mayer Rice (1857-1934) was an American physician and Progressive education reformer recognized as a major figure in the educational reform movement alongside John Dewey and Lester Frank Ward. He is often called the father of educational research for his pioneering comparative methodology and scientific investigations into teaching, particularly his studies on spelling instruction published in The Forum magazine (1892-1893). Rice abandoned medical practice in 1888 to study pedagogy in Germany and subsequently examined approximately 125,000 children in American schools, publishing influential works including The Public-School System of the United States (1893) and Scientific Management in Education (1913).