Early Life, Education, and Professional Development
Lee Joseph Cronbach was born in 1916 in Fresno, California. His talent in testing was revealed when he was 4 years old. According to his sister, Lee was overheard then calculating the unit price of potatoes. He came to the conclusion that the market his mother shopped charged more than the market he was in with ababysitter. This feat was then reported to Blanche Cummings, aschool psychologist and disciple of Lewis Terman. After Terman gave Lee an IQ test and found his score was 200, he enrolled Lee into his gifted program. With the push from his mother, he graduated from Fresno High School at the age of 14 and Fresno State College at 18 (Shavelson and Gleser 2002).
In 1938, he earned amaster’s degree at the University of California-Berkeley while teaching mathematics and chemistry at Fresno High School. Then he went on to obtain adoctor’s degree in educational psychology from the University of Chicago. He became an associate professor...
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References
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Shavelson, R., & Gleser, G. (2002). Lee J. Cronbach (1916–2001): obituary. American Psychologist, 57(5), 360–361.
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Li, J. (2012). Cronbach, Lee J.. In: Rieber, R.W. (eds) Encyclopedia of the History of Psychological Theories. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0463-8_327
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