Barry McGaw, Ph.D.

Director for Education
Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD), Paris

Barry McGaw is Director of the Directorate for Education in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Prior to the creation of this separate directorate in September 2002, he was from September 1998 Deputy Director for Education in the former OECD Directorate for Education, Employment, Labor and Social Affairs. The Directorate’s mission is to assist Members and Partners in achieving high quality lifelong learning for all that contributes to personal development, sustainable economic growth and social cohesion.

The Directorate’s current programme is organized under six strategic objectives: 1) Connecting lifelong learning policy with other social and economic policies; 2) Evaluating and improving outcomes of education; 3) Promoting quality teaching; 4) Rethinking tertiary education in a global economy; 5) Building social cohesion through education; and 6) Building new futures for education. The two major annual publications of the Directorate are Education at a Glance and Education Policy Analysis.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) measures the performance of 15-year-olds in reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy and an increasing range of cross-curricular competencies every three years, commencing in 2000. Prior to joining OECD, Dr. McGaw was Executive Director of the Australian Council for Educational Research, an independent, not-for-profit company, based in Melbourne, with an international research and development programme.

He had earlier been Professor of Education at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. Originally a graduate in chemistry from the University of Queensland in Australia, he subsequently studied psychology, completing his PhD in educational psychology and psychometrics at the University of Illinois in the USA. Dr. McGaw’s research interests have been in educational measurement and learning.

He has had extensive experience in issues of curriculum and assessment in the upper secondary years, including selection procedures for higher education. He chaired governmental review Committees dealing with these issues in two Australian States and, in a third, acted as sole reviewer and author of a public discussion document and a report with recommendations. In all three cases, the government substantially accepted and implemented the recommendations.

Dr. McGaw is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian Psychological Society and the Australian College of Educators. He has been President of the Australian Association for Research in Education, the Australian Psychological Society, the Australian College of Educators and the International Association for Educational Assessment. In 2003, he received an Australian Centenary Medal “for distinguished service through educational research and policy.”