Professor Gordon Stanley

The Director of the Centre and Pearson Professor of Educational Assessment: Professor Gordon Stanley. 

Professor Stanley was President of the Board of Studies in New South Wales in Australia from 1998-2008. In this role he was responsible for curriculum and assessment for schools K-12, the registration and accreditation of non-government schools and for overseeing the development of standards-referenced reporting in public examinations. During this period major reform to school curriculum and assessment occurred including the closer integration of vocational education and training into the senior curriculum.

In 2007 he chaired the National Numeracy Review for the Human Capital Working Group of the Council of Australian Governments.

As a member of the NSW Vocational Education and Training Accreditation Board from 1998-2008 and as an overseas member of the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation (now HKCAAVQ) he has considerable experience of and interest in assessment and accreditation issues in higher and vocational education.

During 1990-1994 Professor Stanley held a senior education position in Western Australia where he was involved in negotiating the foundation of Edith Cowan University and in reviewing the education and training portfolio in that State.

From 1995-97 he was Deputy Chair (1995-6) and then Chair (1997) of the Australian National Board of Employment Education and Training as well as Chair of the Higher Education Council.

During the 1990s he became involved in quality assurance issues in education and was a member of the Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education 1993-5. In his NBEET role he provided advice on quality issues to the Commonwealth Minister for Education and published a number of papers on performance indicators and quality in higher education.  He was a consultant to the World Bank Higher Education Reform Project in Vietnam, 1996-7.

In his various roles since 1990 he has attended ministerial meetings with Australian State and Federal Ministers for Education. Over this period he has worked with and reported to 11 different Ministers, gaining considerable experience of how Commonwealth/State relationships in education work out in practice in a national federated system.

A former Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Staff) at the University of Melbourne, he is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology from the University of Melbourne and Honorary Professor of Education at the University of Sydney. 

He was awarded the Harold Wyndham Medal in 2004 for his contribution to education by the Australian College of Educators and received the 2008 Meritorious Service to Public Education and Training Award from the New South Wales Minister for Education.

Over his career he has published a large number of papers in psychology as well as in education. His most recent publications in education and assessment are listed under publications.