BSocSc(Psych), PGradDipPsych Swin

Elizabeth O’Grady is a Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research. Since commencing in 2008, Elizabeth worked in the International Surveys division where she contributed to various aspects of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). At the international level, she was involved with the development and analysis of background questionnaires most notably with the School Questionnaire for the PISA 2012 cycle. Elizabeth also made significant contributions to PISA written documentation/reports/expert group papers, literature reviews and data analysis, instructional manuals, computer based assessment, field operations, quality control and project administration.

Since early 2013 Elizabeth transferred to the Australian Surveys division where she is responsible for the project management and administration of various national surveys within Australian primary and secondary schools. This includes, the Teacher and Learning International Survey (TALIS), Australian Child Wellbeing Project (ACWP), International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS), PISA, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Management responsibilities included designing survey instruments (including online systems); liaising with government and education departments, schools and parents; developing procedures, processes and documentation for project implementation; data management (WinW3S & IEA DME), collection and analysis; report writing and dissemination; and all aspects of project administration (e.g. ethics/permissions, participant recruitment, planning and scheduling, training, etc).

Elizabeth is also the project manager for School Surveys within ACERs School Education division. This involves the ongoing development of surveys aimed at measuring student’s personal and social attributes, and the management of their availability to schools through ACERs Online Assessment and Reporting (OARS) service.

Prior to joining ACER, Elizabeth was employed as a Local Community Partnership consultant with a youth organisation in Melbourne. In this role Elizabeth liaised, supported and built relationships with local students/parents, employers, schools, training organisations and other related stakeholders in order to educate and empower young people to explore their educational and vocational options. Elizabeth also researched and developed evaluations for Vocational and Educational Training programs and Structured Workplace Learning.