Biography

Sally M. Thomas is Professor of Education at the Graduate School and has conducted and led academic research studies for 30+ years.  Previously she was Director of the UOB GSOE Centre for Assessment and Evlauation Research (CAERe) 2012-17, an Associate Director and founding member of the International School Effectiveness and Improvement Centre at the London Institute of Education 1993-2000, and has also worked at University of Oxford and the London School of Economics.

Her main publications are on different aspects of educational quality, which have examined a variety of factors, indicators and processes related to school, teacher and institutional effectiveness and improvement, both in UK and internationally (China, Latin America and Africa).  In particular she has carried out extensive research studies on ‘value added’ measures of school effectiveness and the application of these measures for different, or overlapping, purposes including: school improvement, school evaluation and self-evaluation, international quality indicators and academic knowledge-base research.  Her research interests include professional, teacher and school learning communities and exploring further the processes of schooling, teaching and learning as well as a range of educational outcomes including pupil, parent and teacher attitudes, academic and vocational measures, citizenship, formal and informal learning and behaviour.  

Publications include a co-authored book ‘Educational Evaluation And Monitoring; A Systemic Approach’ published by SWETS (2003) and a Chapter in the 2015 The Routledge International Handbook of Educational Effectiveness: Research, Policy and Practice. 

Project websites:

Improving Educational Evaluation and Quality in China (IEEQC) https://ieeqc.bristol.ac.uk

Effective Professional Learning Communitites (EPLC) http://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/research/sites/eplc/