Margaret Wu is an Australian statistician and psychometrician who specialises in

educational measurement Educational measurement refers to the use of educational assessments and the analysis of data such as scores obtained from educational assessments to infer the abilities and proficiencies of students. The approaches overlap with those in psychometri ...

. She is an honorary professor at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

Early life

Wu studied statistics at the

and graduated in 1972. She worked at

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university h ...

as a research assistant from 1973 to 1975, where she taught herself to program. She worked with Watterson on the

Watterson estimator In population genetics, the Watterson estimator is a method for describing the genetic diversity in a population. It was developed by Margaret Wu and G. A. Watterson in the 1970s. It is estimated by counting the number of polymorphic sites. It is a ...

, a means to determine the genetic diversity of a population.

Research and career

Wu joined CSIRO as a technical officer in 1977. She earned a graduate diploma in computer studies from the

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public university, public research university in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering cla ...

in 1985. Wu became a high school teacher at Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School, teaching Chinese and mathematics. She was appointed as a senior research fellow in the Australian Council of Educational Research Development (ACER) in 1992, where she was deputy director of

Programme for International Student Assessment The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in member and non-member nations intended to evaluate educational systems by measuring 15-yea ...

(PISA). Working with ACER and the

, Wu completed her

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

, which was awarded the Freda Cohen Award for the Best Masters Thesis in Education. Wu remained at the

for her PhD, modelling student assessment data with underlying abilities modelled as

latent variable In statistics, latent variables (from Latin: present participle of ''lateo'', “lie hidden”) are variables that can only be inferred indirectly through a mathematical model from other observable variables that can be directly observed or me ...

s. She was appointed associate professor at the

in 2008. She studied whether collaborative teams of teachers using evidence-based decisions influenced student achievement. She was made a professor at

Victoria University, Melbourne Victoria University (VU or Vic Uni) is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is one of only six dual-sector universities in Australia, providing courses in both higher education and Technical and Further Educat ...

in 2012. Wu is sceptical about the importance of the

National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a series of tests focused on basic skills that are administered to Australian students in year 3, 5, 7 and 9. These standardised tests assess students' reading, writing, ...

(

NAPLAN The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a series of tests focused on basic skills that are administered to Australian students in year 3, 5, 7 and 9. These standardised tests assess students' reading, writing, l ...

) and PISA results due to

measurement error Observational error (or measurement error) is the difference between a measured value of a quantity and its true value.Dodge, Y. (2003) ''The Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms'', OUP. In statistics, an error is not necessarily a "mistake ...

s acquired during collection of data. She is also concerned about the inferences that can be drawn from assessment data, such as using student performance to evaluate teacher performance. She believes that whilst teachers contribute to education, other factors are likely to be more important. After the data was published on the website ''My School'', Wu began to speak up about the misuse of standardised testing. Her efforts resulted into an enquiry into the effectiveness of

. Her findings were confirmed in 2018, when

Les Perelman Leslie Cooper Perelman is an American scholar and authority on writing assessment. He is a critic of automated essay scoring (AES), and influenced the College Board's decision to terminate the Writing Section of the SAT. Perelman is currently ...

and Walt Haney reported that

results of one million students should "be discarded". In 1995, Wu began to concentrate on the development of

Item Response Theory In psychometrics, item response theory (IRT) (also known as latent trait theory, strong true score theory, or modern mental test theory) is a paradigm for the design, analysis, and scoring of tests, questionnaires, and similar instruments measuring ...

. She developed two item response software programs that analyse PISA and

TIMSS The IEA's Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a series of international assessments of the mathematics and science knowledge of students around the world. The participating students come from a diverse set of educ ...

data; ''ACER ConQuest'' (1998) and the R-package ''TAM'' (2010). Wu's contributions to the

were uncovered by a team of undergraduate students led by Emilia Huerta-Sánchez ( Brown University) and Rori Rohlfs (

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...

). The students searched every issue of

Theoretical Population Biology ''Theoretical Population Biology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on theoretical aspects population biology in its widest sense, including mathematical modelling of populations, ecology, evolution, genetics, demography, ...

published between 1970 and 1990. She was one of several "acknowledged programmers", who were disproportionately women, who contributed significantly to highly cited manuscripts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Margaret Australian statisticians Monash University alumni Academic staff of the University of Melbourne Educational researchers Women statisticians 1950 births Living people