Michael Davidson is a Senior Analyst in the Directorate for Education of the OECD, based in Paris. Working in the Indicators and Analysis Division , he has been a major contributor to the OECD’s annual flagship publication, Education at a Glance, with contributions mainly focussed on the learning environment and organisations of schools and most recently on educational efficiency. He was also the principal author of the “OECD Handbook for Internationally Comparative Statistics on Education”, published in 2004.

He is project leader for the new OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) programme, having worked on its early conceptual development through to its current implementation.

Before joining the OECD in 2003, he worked as a statistician for over 20 years in the UK Civil Service with postings in the Ministries of health, trade and industry before joining the education ministry. Over a 10 year period in the education ministry, he was responsible for the production, analysis and dissemination of statistics on all phases of education from pre-primary through to higher education, with teaching and learning increasingly becoming a focus. In addition, he spent two years seconded to a local authority working as head of the school planning and schools information services, supporting local school improvement.