Shiel is a research fellow at the Educational Research Centre, St Patrick's College, Dublin, Ireland, where he has worked on national and international assessments of reading literacy and mathematics, and developed achievement tests and other assessment materials since 1993. He currently chairs the International Reading Association's European Committee, and is a member of the OECD PISA Board of Participating Countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Program for International Student Assessment).

His research interests are in the areas of comparative assessment and the assessment of reading ability. Shiel has published articles on the teaching and assessment of reading in The Reading Teacher, Reading Research and Instruction, Reading and Writing Quarterly, and Educational Assessment. He has also served on the editorial boards of The Reading Teacher and the Journal of Research in Reading.

Shiel is currently directing a study of a national assessment of English reading in primary schools in Ireland, as well as completing a report on the reading literacy abilities of pupils attending high-poverty schools.

Shiel replaces P. David Pearson, PhD, Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California at Berkeley. The Network thanks P. David Pearson for his work with ESAB.