Ross Turner

Ross Turner, MSc (Stats), DipEd Melb, DipEdPsych Monash, retired as Principal Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research in the Education Policy and Practice research program in 2024.

His work priorities involved exploring the use of ACER’s learning progressions in curriculum design and review, learner assessment and reporting, and teacher development.

 

Previously, Ross managed ACER’s Centre for Global Education Monitoring. The GEM Centre, supported by the Australian Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), provides technical support to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics in support of its work in the UN’s Education 2030 agenda. Ross led development of a learning progression for mathematics. 

For several years Ross carried out management and coordination activities in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a large international research project funded by the OECD. He managed a substantial test development process across three different knowledge domains, with test development teams in several countries, led the development of mathematics test items, was responsible for PISA’s approach to reporting student achievement, and contributed to the management of other aspects of the project. 

 

As well as management skills, his technical expertise in the areas of mathematics curriculum and assessment, statistical analysis of performance data, and educational measurement in general are called on regularly as part of ongoing ACER work. 

 

Before joining ACER in early 2000, Ross led the development of the mathematics curriculum for the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). As Manager Research and Evaluation at the Victorian Board of Studies, he contributed significantly to the development of assessment procedures in the VCE, to monitoring and evaluating all aspects of VCE implementation, and was responsible for provision of technical advice and development of statistical procedures. His other research interests included comparability of teacher assessments, provision of student achievement feedback data, and the development of statistical moderation procedures for the VCE. 

Ross was extensively involved in mathematics education as a secondary teacher for 12 years, and in teacher education programs at tertiary level.

 

Some essays and commentary can be found at https://www.rossturner.me/maths-education