Professor Jo-Anne Baird

Jo-Anne is Director of the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment.  She completed a six-year term as Head of the Department of Education, has been Standing Adviser to the House of Commons Education Select Committee, a member of Ofqual’s Standing Advisory Group on Standards, Chair of the National Reference Test Expert Group, and a member of the Welsh Government’s Curriculum and Assessment Group.

Before coming to Oxford, Jo-Anne held academic posts at the Institute of Education, University of London and the University of Bristol. Her first degree and doctorate were in psychology and she has an MBA.  Her research projects include Setting and Maintaining Standards in national examinations, Examination reform: the impact of modular and linear examinations at GCSE, Assessment for Learning in Africa (AFLA), intelligent accountability and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study England national centre.

Her research interests are in educational assessment, including system-wide structures and processes, examination standards, marking and assessment design.  Jo-Anne conducts a lot of work in collaboration with government and industry partners. She is a Co-Lead Editor of the Oxford Review of Education journal.  She has been a Visiting Professor at the universities of Bergen and Queen’s (Belfast) and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bergen in 2019.  From 2013 to 2015 she was President of the Association for Educational Assessment – Europe.