Ralph Saubern is the Director of ACER’s Assessment Services Division. Assessment
Services provides fee-for-service assessment services for schools, universities,
Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes, employers and professional
organisations. These services include secure selection and entry tests, tests for
diagnostic and monitoring purposes, and surveys of attitudes and values such as the
Graduate Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT), the Australasian Survey of Student
Engagement (AUSSE), the International Schools’ Assessment (ISA), the Co-operative
Scholarship Testing Program (CSTP), and the Vocational Indicator (V). 

Ralph is also the Project Director for Committed to Excellence, an ACER program that
supports school leaders in their review and development of school practices to improve
teaching and learning based on the eight domains of the Teaching and Learning School
Improvement Framework. 

He was appointed to ACER in 2000 and worked until 2010 in ACER Press, the publishing arm
of ACER, including as General Manager and Publisher from 2007-2010. During his time
working in ACER Press he was involved in the development and publication of a range of
ACER school education and psychology assessments, including PAT Maths, PAT Reading, TORCH
and ACER Select, and commissioned and published works for the ACER Press book publishing
program, particularly in the areas of educational leadership, pedagogy and special needs. 

In 2009, Ralph undertook a sabbatical with The Song Room, a national not-for-profit
organisation that provides free, long-term music and arts-based programs for children in
disadvantaged and high need communities. As Learning and Development Manager, Ralph was
responsible for the professional learning needs of The Song Room Teaching Artists and the
teachers and principals in schools receiving The Song Room arts education program. 

In 2010 he returned to ACER and was appointed General Manager, Schools and later to his
current position as Director of ACER’s Assessment Services Division. 

He began his career as an ESL teacher, teaching and lecturing at Holmesglen Institute of
TAFE, RMIT University, Deakin University and Monash University. At Monash University he
held the position of Computer Assisted Learning Co-ordinator before a secondment in 1998
led to his appointment as General Manager of Wiser Software, an independent educational
multimedia publisher.

Articles

Stupid gamers and terrible teenagers : uncovering authentic learning, Teacher (2010)

Do you think game-thumbing young people are stupid, antisocial zombies, while skaters are just, well,...

 
Useful assessment is timely assessment, Teacher (2010)

testing and teaching are not opposed: testing is an integral part of good teaching.

 
For what will it profit a man? How not-for-profits are helping your profession, Teacher (2010)

Organisations in the not-for-profit sector are helping educators find new ways of doing things better.

 
Ping: the Web 2.0 future of education?, Teacher (2010)

Want to see the Web 2.0 future of education? Ralph Saubern's case study of an...

 
Closing the gap : arts education on the Top End, Teacher (2010)

In this second article of a three-part series on the work of The Song Room,...

 

View More »

Presentations

CALL and culture: assessment and response, 10th Annual EA [Elicos Association] Education Conference (1997)

This paper discusses the Perspectives Interaction Paradigm of Squires and McDougall (1994) which is a...