Emeritus Professor Claire Wyatt-Smith

Faculty of Education and Arts

Professor Claire Wyatt-Smith

Areas of expertise: assessment standards; initial teacher education; assessment and learning analytics; human judgment and moderation practice; language and literacy education; digital assessment 

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Full

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1190-9909

Phone: +61 407 654 391

Email: [email protected]

Location: ACU Brisbane campus

Professor Claire Wyatt-Smith is an Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment and Literacy at ACU. Her research addresses standards, professional judgement, teacher education and alternative schools.

Claire’s body of writing includes research on digital learning assessment, big data and learning analytics. The most recent outcome in this area includes a co-authored UNESCO paper.

Her research examines assessment as viewed through research, practice and policy, showing an extensive history of collaborations across these domains in several countries. She led a large team of researchers, teacher educators and industry partners across 6 Australian states and territories to advance the design and implementation of Australia’s first performance assessment in teaching, the Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment (GTPA), hosted by ACU. The GTPA project is large scale. It involves research-informed approaches to professional standards, cross-institution moderation, instrument validation, and data analytics for benchmarking. The work generated new knowledge about instrument validity and reliability of judgement against an established standard, and the use of customized Performance Assessment Reports for summative purposes as well formative purposes.

Other work includes: i) an ARC funded study of teacher judgement of student samples, in collaboration with assessment and measurement specialists and education authorities in Queensland and Western Australian, and ii) a review of NAPLAN involving Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.

Her work has attracted funding from the Australian Research Council (Discovery and Linkage Schemes), and governments at national and state levels, as well as international educational agencies. This has supported her publications in leading international journals and publishing houses including Routledge, Sage and Springer. She was the Foundation Editor of two book series with Springer Publishing.

Select publications

  • Series Editor, Teacher education, learning innovation and accountability. Springer International. 2018 - 2024
  • Series Editor, The enabling power of assessment. Springer International. 2014 -2024

Authored monographs

  • Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L., Haynes, M., & Day, C. (2022). Professionalising teacher education and teaching: Performance assessment, standards and evidence. Routledge.
  • Klenowski, V., & Wyatt-Smith, C. M. (2014). Assessment for education: Standards, judgement and Moderation. London, England: Sage.

Selected articles

  • Wyatt-Smith, C., & Harris. L.R. (2026) Towards evaluating the impact of employment-based programs in Australian initial teacher education. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 54, 4, 339-361. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1359866X.2026.2681164
  • Harris, L. R., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2026). The rise of Alternative Authorisation to Teach in Australia: analysis of current data and its implications. Teachers and Teaching, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2026.2705978
  • Wyatt-Smith, C., & Kimber, M. (2025). In K.L. Chue, A. Yeo, K.H.K. Tan, & T. H. Yong (Eds.), Fundamentals of Assessment: Principles and Practices for the Classroom (1st ed. Chapter 4). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003534648
  • Wyatt-Smith, C., & Kimber, M. (2024). Teaching, Learning and Assessing in the AI-Era: Considering the Framework for Generative AI in Schools. Australian Educational Leader.
  • Volante, L., DeLuca, C., Barnes, N., Birenbaum, M., Kimber, M., Koch, M., Looney, A., Poskitt, J., Smith, K., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2024). International trends in the implementation of assessment for learning revisited: Implications for policy and practice in a post-COVID world. Policy Futures in Education [Online First]. https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241255855
  • Adie, L., Wyatt-Smith, C., Finch, M., & DeLuca, C. (2024). Evidence of teacher assessment work and its relationship to their assessment identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 141, 104518, 1– 10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104518
  • Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L., & Harris, L. (2024). Supporting teacher judgement and decision-making: Using focused analysis to help teachers see students, learning, and quality in assessment data. British Educational Research Journal, 00, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3984
  • Adie, L., Gallagher, J., Wyatt-Smith, C., Spina, N., DeLuca, C. (2023). Mediating teachers’ assessment work. The Australian Educational Researcher. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-023-00675-z
  • Lingard, B., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2023). Socially just assessment practices in systems and schools: The place of the new technologies. UNESCO: The Blue Dot.
  • Harris, L., Adie, L., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2022). Learning progression-based assessments: A systematic review of student and teacher uses. Review of Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543221081552
  • Wyatt-Smith, C. & Adie, L. (2021). The development of students’ evaluative expertise: Enabling conditions for integrating criteria into pedagogic practice. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 53(4), 399-419. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2019.1624831
  • Wyatt-Smith, C., Humphry, S., Adie, L., & Colbert, P. (2020). The application of pairwise comparisons to form scaled exemplars as a basis for setting and exemplifying standards in teacher education. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, 27(1), 65-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594X.2020.1712326
  • Alexander, C., Wyatt-Smith, C., & Du Plessis, A. (2020). The role of motivations and perceptions on the retention of inservice teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 96, 103186. doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103186
  • Harris, L., Wyatt-Smith, C., & Adie, L. E. (2020). Using data walls to display assessment results: A review of their affective impacts on teachers and students, Teachers and Teaching, 26(1), 50-66, https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2020.1739018
  • Adie, L. E., Harris, L., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2020). Examining research into the use of data walls for teaching and learning: How are they being implemented within data use cycles? Teaching and Teacher Education, 89, 103012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.103012
  • Volante, L., DeLuca, C., Baker, E., Harju-Luukkainen, H., Heritage, M., Schneider, C., Stobart, G., Tan, K., Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L. (2020). Synergy and tension between large-scale and classroom assessment: International trends. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice. doi:10.1111/emip.12382
  • Adie, L., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2019). Fidelity of summative performance assessment in initial teacher education: The intersection of standardisation and authenticity. Asia–Pacific Journal of Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2019.1606892
  • Wyatt-Smith, C., & Adie, L. (2018). Assessment: The trilogy of standards, evidence and judgement in Australian education reform. In A. Reid, & D. Price (Eds.), The Australian Curriculum: Promises, problems and possibilities (pp. 163–176). Canberra, Australia: Australian Curriculum Studies Association.
  • Wyatt-Smith, C., & Looney, A. (2016). Professional standards and the assessment work of teachers. In D. Wise, L. Hayward, & J. Pandya (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment (pp. 805–820). London, England: Sage.
  • Wyatt-Smith, C., & Klenowski, V. (2013). Explicit, latent and meta–criteria: Types of criteria at play in professional judgement practice. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, 20(1), 35–52.
  • Wyatt-Smith, C. M., Klenowski, V., & Gunn, S. (2010). The centrality of teachers’ judgement practice in assessment: A study of standards in moderation. Assessment in Education: Principles, policy & practice, 17(1), 59–75.

Edited books

  • Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L., Haynes, M., & Day, C. (2022). Professionalising teacher education and teaching: Performance assessment, standards and evidence [in press]. Routledge.
  • Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L., & Nuttall, J. (Eds.). (2021). Teaching performance assessments as a cultural disruptor in initial teacher education: Standards, evidence and collaboration. Springer.
  • Wyatt-Smith, C., Lingard, B., & Heck, E. (Eds). (2021). Digital Disruption in Teaching and Testing: Assessments, Big Data, and the Transformation of Schooling. London, England: Routledge.
  • Wyatt-Smith, C., & Adie, L. (Eds.). (2018). Innovation and accountability in teacher education: Setting directions for new cultures in teacher education. Singapore: Springer.
  • Wyatt-Smith, C., Klenowski, V., & Colbert, P. (Eds.). (2014). Designing assessment for quality learning. Foundation book in the series: The enabling power of assessment. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

Projects

Selected studies with ARC funding

  • 2023-2025, Australian Research Council (Discovery Project; DP No. 230101905). Ng, C., Renshaw, P., & Wyatt-Smith, C. Improving disadvantaged students’ writing engagement and achievement. $423,000
  • 2022, Queensland Department of Education and Training (Education Horizon) & Queensland Department of Education and Training (State Schools – Performance Division): Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L., Pendergast, D., Blayney, W., Dargusch, J., Doyle, T., Haynes, M., Spallek, M., & Smith, A., Improving post-graduate pathways: Evidence-informed innovations for attraction, progression and supporting transition into teaching. $99,401
  • 2019-2023, Australian Research Council, Linkage Scheme: Adie, L., Wyatt-Smith, C., Humphry, S., Cumming, J., Andrich, D., DeLuca, C., & Gallagher, T., Improving teacher assessment capability using scaled annotated exemplars of achievement standards in online moderation. $858,658
  • 2017, Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), Teaching Performance Assessment Grant Program: Wyatt-Smith, C., Nuttall, J., Cumming, J., & Adie, L., Building an evidence base of teacher quality and classroom readiness: A focus on teaching performance assessments. (The Standards Project: Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment (GTPA) Trial). $350,000
  • 2016, Queensland Department of Education and Training (Education Horizon) & Queensland Department of Education and Training (State Schools – Performance Division): Wyatt-Smith, C., Cumming, J., Unsworth, L., Humphrey, S., Adie, L., Neville, M., & Jackson, C., Research Partnerships and Improvement Science: Using data to inform the teaching of writing and assessment. $170,000
  • 2015-2018, Australian Research Council, Discovery Scheme: Cumming, J., Wyatt-Smith, C.M., Dickson, E., Webster, A., Harris, K., & Graham, S., Raising the Bar not the Barrier: Effective, Enriching and Enabling School-Based Assessments and Optimal Adjustments for Secondary School Students with Disabilities. $310,900
  • 2011-2014, Australian Research Council, Discovery Scheme: Ng, C., Wyatt-Smith, C. M., & Bartlett, B., Improving disadvantaged students? Reading outcomes through overcoming reading avoidance and building reading engagement. $492,725
  • 2011-2013, Australian Research Council, Discovery Scheme: Cumming, J. J., & Wyatt-Smith, C. M., An investigation of school and teacher use of National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) for student learning improvement. $230,000
  • 2011-2013, Australian Research Council, Linkage Scheme: Mayer, D., Doecke, B., Dixon, M., Kostogriz, A., Allard, A. C., White, S. J., Walker Gibba, B. M., Rowan, L. O., Wyatt-Smith, C. M., & Bates, R. J., Investigating the effectiveness of teacher education for early career teachers in diverse settings: a longitudinal study. Industry Partners: Queensland College of Teachers, Queensland Department of Education and Training, Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, Victorian Institute of Teaching. $293,000

Selected industry funded studies

  • 2026 - 2027, Inspectorate Ireland, Improving assessment in schools
  • 2024, Faculty of Education, University of Canterbury, New Zealand: The Review of the Centre for Assessment and Monitoring. $31,500
  • 2023, Australian Government Department of Education: Developing a Quality Measure for ITE courses. $325,707
  • 2022, Catholic Schools NSW: Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L.., Unsworth, L., Holloway, J., & Lewis, S., COVID Intensive Learning Support Symposium modules. $16,500
  • 2022, Association of Independent Schools of NSW: Wyatt-Smith, C., Holloway, J., Alexander, C., Harris, L., Day, C., & Marcy, A., Growing and nurturing education: Rapid literature review. $19,922
  • 2021, Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL): Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie., L., Haynes, M., & Day, C., The nature and function of cross-institutional moderation in initial teacher education: Quality assurance processes through longitudinal analysis of linked ITE and workforce data. $30,000
  • 2021, Queensland College of Teachers: Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie. L., Day, C., & Alexander, C., Assessing professional experience in initial teacher education: Evidence, judgement and self-efficacy. $20,000
  • 2020-2021, Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment. Wyatt-Smith, C., Haynes, M., Spallek, M., Smith, A. and Day, C. (2020). Quality of initial teacher education through longitudinal analysis of linked ITE and workforce data. $99,980
  • McGaw, B., Louden, W., & Wyatt-Smith, C. (2020). NAPLAN Review Final Report. State of New South Wales (Department of Education), State of Queensland (Department of Education), State of Victoria (Department of Education and Training), and Australian Capital Territory. ISBN: 978-0-6480638-1-0. NAPLAN Review Final Report
  • 2019, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): Wyatt-Smith, C., & Lingard, B., Digital Learning Assessments and Big Data. €6,000
  • 2019, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA): Wyatt-Smith, C., Review and evaluate the current writing assessment marking rubrics in National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) . $50,000
  • 2019, Victorian Department of Education and Training, Wyatt-Smith, C., Adie, L., & Du Plessis, A., Guiding principles for curriculum supports. $50,000
  • 2017, Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), Teaching Performance Assessment Grant Program: Wyatt-Smith, C., Nuttall, J., Cumming, J., & Adie, L., Building an evidence base of teacher quality and classroom readiness: A focus on teaching performance assessments. (The Standards Project: Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment (GTPA) Trial). $350,000. https://www.graduatetpa.com/ https://www.graduatetpa.com/#video
  • 2016, Queensland Department of Education and Training (Education Horizon) & Queensland Department of Education and Training (State Schools – Performance Division): Wyatt-Smith, C., Cumming, J., Unsworth, L., Humphrey, S., Adie, L., Neville, M., & Jackson, C., Research Partnerships and Improvement Science: Using data to inform the teaching of writing and assessment. $170,000

Accolades and awards

  • 2025 Appointed Professor Emerita at the Australian Catholic University
  • 2020 European e-Learning Excellence Awards, second place awarded to the Graduate Teacher Performance Assessment project team
  • ACU Vice-Chancellor’s Staff Excellence Medal Winner: Excellence in research and research partnerships, 2018
  • Australian Council for Educational Leaders, Queensland Honorary Fellowship Award, 2015
  • Research Excellence Award, Griffith University Griffith University, Arts, Education and Law Faculty Group, 2012

Previous appointments and affiliations

  • Director, Research Centre for Digital Data and Assessment in Education, Australian Catholic University, April 2020 - 2025
  • Director, Institute for Learning Sciences & Teacher Education (formerly Learning Sciences Institute Australia), Australian Catholic University, 2014 - 2025
  • Executive Dean, Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University, 2013 - 2014
  • Group Dean (Academic) Arts, Education and Law Group, Griffith University, 2010 – 2013
  • Dean, Faculty of Education, Griffith University, 2006 – 2010
  • Research Director, Centre for Applied Language, Literacy and Communication Studies, Griffith University, 2003 - 2006
  • Co-Director, Research Centre for Literacy Education Research, 1997 - 2002

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