Sofia Kesidou is an executive leader and academic researcher with close to 30-years’ experience in international educational assessment, curriculum and research. She has created value for organisations and projects she has led by strengthening existing product and service portfolios, developing growth-oriented strategies that align with client needs, and extending brand reach.
Sofia's inquiry and professional work have focused on the development and evaluation of national education standards, research-based curriculum and assessment. With a sound grounding in the learning sciences, she was a key contributor to the development and implementation of national science, mathematics and technology standards in the US, and developed award-winning research-based processes for the evaluation of curriculum and associated resources.
In Australia, Sofia has led research, development and validation of numerous large-scale assessment and reporting programs, including the assessment frameworks on which they are based. In collaboration with the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, Sofia led a number of studies that provided empirical evidence to support the transition of the national assessments from paper to computer-based. In parallel with large-scale assessment, Sofia has been increasingly involved in the development of research-driven tools for classroom assessment. She currently directs the NSW Education Standards Authority's Thematic Review of Assessment, a research project aiming to examine NSW teachers’ understanding and use of assessment, working in collaboration with the Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment at The University of Sydney.
Sofia has taught courses in assessment to undergraduate and graduate students, and has conducted numerous professional-development sessions related to standards-based curriculum and assessment as well as assessment and data literacy internationally.
