Dr Sue Thomson is the Head of Educational Monitoring and Research and the Director
of the National Surveys research program at the Australian Council for Educational
Research.
Dr Thomson is also the National Research Coordinator for Australia in the Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which measures achievement in
mathematics and science for students in grades 4 and 8, the Progress in International
Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), which measures reading literacy of grade 4 students, and
the National Project Manager for Australia for the OECD Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA), which examines reading, mathematical and scientific literacy
of 15-year-old students.
Dr Thomson's research at ACER has involved extensive analysis of large-scale
national and international data sets - the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth
(LSAY), as well as TIMSS and PISA. In more recent work she has collaborated on projects
involving analysis of the longitudinal data collection associated with PISA 2003. She has
experience with a wide range of complex statistical procedures, including cluster
analysis, discriminant analysis and multi-level modelling.
The PISA and TIMSS reports produced by Dr Thomson and her team are widely recognised as
world-class, and have led to similar work for Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, and
Indonesia.
Dr Thomson joined ACER in 1998 and spent a number of years as a member of the
Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth project team. She also managed the Australian
component of Schools around the World, an international project examining assessment in
science and mathematics, and Project Good Start, which examined children's numeracy
in the transition from preschool to the first year of school. She was engaged as an
expert writer on the National Numeracy Review, and has consulted with DEEWR, FaHCSIA and
the Victorian and ACT Departments of Education on a variety of data analysis projects
related to TIMSS and PISA.
Before joining ACER, Dr Thomson lectured at a number of universities in Statistics and
Research Methodology while she completed her PhD focusing on students' attributions
and engagement in mathematics over the transition from primary to secondary school. Prior
to that Dr Thomson worked as a Mathematics and IT teacher in government secondary schools
in Victoria.
Dr Thomson has published a variety of articles and research reports based on her work at
ACER (see also under Sue Fullarton), and has presented findings at conferences
internationally and nationally.
Books
Book Chapters
Articles
Conference Papers & Presentations
Reports
