Margaret Wu
{{Short description|Australian statistician and psychometrician}}
{{distinguish|Margaret C. Wu}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Margaret Wu
| alma_mater = University of Melbourne
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
| thesis_title = The application of item response theory to measure problem-solving proficiencies
| thesis_url = https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/38925
| workplaces = Monash University
| thesis_year = 2004
}}
Margaret Wu is an Australian statistician and psychometrician who specialises in educational measurement. She is an honorary professor at the University of Melbourne.
Early life
Wu studied statistics at the University of Melbourne and graduated in 1972.{{Cite web|url=http://genestogenomes.org/margaret-wu/|title=From hidden contributor to professor: an interview with Margaret Wu|date=2019-02-07|website=Genes to Genomes|access-date=2019-02-12}} She worked at Monash University as a research assistant from 1973 to 1975, where she taught herself to program.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/womens-history-in-science-hidden-footnotes/582472/|title=The Women Who Contributed to Science but Were Buried in Footnotes|last=Yong|first=Ed|date=2019-02-11|website=The Atlantic|access-date=2019-02-12}} She worked with Watterson on the Watterson estimator, 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 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 (PISA). Working with ACER and the University of Melbourne, Wu completed her master's, which was awarded the Freda Cohen Award for the Best Masters Thesis in Education. Wu remained at the University of Melbourne for her PhD, modelling student assessment data with underlying abilities modelled as latent variables.
She was appointed associate professor at the University of Melbourne in 2008. She studied whether collaborative teams of teachers using evidence-based decisions influenced student achievement.{{Cite web|url=https://www.findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/display/grant15978|title=The influence of evidence-based decisions by collaborative teacher teams on student achievement - The University of Melbourne|website=www.findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au|access-date=2019-02-12}} She was made a professor at Victoria University, Melbourne in 2012. Wu is sceptical about the importance of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) and PISA results due to measurement errors acquired during collection of data.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=2870|title=It's time to be honest with parents about NAPLAN: your child's report is misleading, here's how|date=2018-05-15|website=EduResearch Matters|access-date=2019-02-12}} She is also concerned about the inferences that can be drawn from assessment data, such as using student performance to evaluate teacher performance.{{Citation|last=Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education|title=Leaning too far? PISA, policy and Australia's 'top five' ambitions|date=2015-09-27|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br93GTTnWr8|access-date=2019-02-12}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/warning-teacher-performance-data|title=Warning on teacher performance data|last=Fox|first=Rebecca|date=2012-03-06|website=Otago Daily Times |access-date=2019-02-12}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.aeuvic.asn.au/sites/default/files/pv_10_1_complete_web.pdf|title=TESTING times|website=AEUVIC|access-date=2019-02-12}} She believes that whilst teachers contribute to education, other factors are likely to be more important.{{Citation|last=NZEI Te Riu Roa|title=Margaret Wu - Student Assessment Data for Accountability|date=2012-03-20|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ptsrdyxBE|access-date=2019-02-12}} After the data was published on the website My School, Wu began to speak up about the misuse of standardised testing.{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-02-02/a_failed_education_revolution/43506|title=The failed education revolution|last=Donnelly|first=Kevin|date=2011-02-02|website=ABC News|access-date=2019-02-12}} Her efforts resulted into an enquiry into the effectiveness of NAPLAN.{{Cite journal|last=Wu|first=Margaret|last2=Hornsby|first2=David|date=August 2014|title=Inappropriate uses of NAPLAN results|url=http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=320310592534323;res=IELHSS|journal=Practically Primary|volume=19|issue=2|pages=16}} Her findings were confirmed in 2018, when Les Perelman and Walt Haney reported that NAPLAN results of one million students should "be discarded".{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-27/naplan-testing-report-says-results-should-be-discarded/10160596|title=NAPLAN results so flawed they should be discarded, US experts say|last=Robinson|first=national education reporter Natasha|date=2018-08-27|website=ABC News|access-date=2019-02-12}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/drumbeat-to-ditch-naplan-is-growing-louder-and-rightly-so-20180504-p4zde3.html|title=Drumbeat to ditch NAPLAN is growing louder - and rightly so|last=Stone|first=Elizabeth|date=2018-05-05|website=The Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=2019-02-12}}
In 1995, Wu began to concentrate on the development of Item Response Theory.{{Cite web|url=http://www.edmeasurement.com.au/people|website=www.edmeasurement.com.au|access-date=2019-02-12|title=Educational Measurement Solutions website}} She developed two item response software programs that analyse PISA and TIMSS data; ACER ConQuest (1998) and the R-package TAM (2010).{{Cite web|url=http://www.edmeasurementsurveys.com/TAM/Tutorials/|title=TAM Tutorials|website=www.edmeasurementsurveys.com|access-date=2019-02-12}}{{Cite book|url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/3943086|title=ACER ConQuest version 2.0: generalised item response modelling software|date=2007|publisher=ACER Press|isbn=9780864314543|editor-last=Wu|editor-first=Margaret L.|location=Camberwell, Vic}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.acer.org/gb/conquest/notes-tutorials|title=Notes and tutorials|website=Australian Council for Educational Research - ACER|access-date=2019-02-12}}
Wu's contributions to the Watterson estimator were uncovered by a team of undergraduate students led by Emilia Huerta-Sánchez (Brown University) and Rori Rohlfs (San Francisco State University). The students searched every issue of Theoretical Population Biology published between 1970 and 1990. She was one of several "acknowledged programmers", who were disproportionately women, who contributed significantly to highly cited manuscripts.{{Cite journal|last=Rohlfs|first=Rori V.|last2=Huerta-Sánchez|first2=Emilia|last3=Catalan|first3=Francisca|last4=Castellanos|first4=Edgar|last5=Thu|first5=Ricky|last6=Reyes|first6=Rochelle-Jan|last7=Barragan|first7=Ezequiel Lopez|last8=López|first8=Andrea|last9=Dung|first9=Samantha Kristin|date=2019-02-01|title=Illuminating Women's Hidden Contribution to Historical Theoretical Population Genetics|url=http://www.genetics.org/content/211/2/363|journal=Genetics|volume=211|issue=2|pages=363–366|doi=10.1534/genetics.118.301277|issn=0016-6731|pmid=30733376|pmc=6366915}}
References
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Category:Australian statisticians
Category:Monash University alumni
Category:Academic staff of the University of Melbourne
Category:Educational researchers