about
Dr John Bennett AM
Early career
John’s career began in 1968 with his appointment as a Mathematics teacher at Maitland Boys’ High School. In 1978 he was promoted to Head Teacher Mathematics at Dover Heights Girls’ High School (later Dover Heights High School).
While at Dover Heights he was a member of a committee that organised Inservice courses for mathematics teachers in the Central Metropolitan, and then Metropolitan East regions.
Middle career
In 1986, having met all the requirements to become a Deputy Principal in the Government School system, John took what he thought would be a three-year secondment at the Statutory Boards Directorate as the Leader, Research Services Section.
With the creation of the Board of Studies, John was appointed in succession to the positions of Manager of Assessment and Systems, Director of Information Technology and Director of Information Services. In these positions he had responsibility for planning, managing and operating information and key measurement systems and services; overseeing the development of the HSC and SC examination papers; and development of advice and materials to support the Board’s assessment and examination programs.
John had become interested in standards-based assessment and that became the focus of his PhD studies at the University of New South Wales. In the late 1990s, when the NSW Government decided to change the way student achievement in the HSC would be reported John’s PhD thesis become the basis for the standards-based approach to assessing and reporting student achievement in the NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC). Thesis abstract.
John was given the challenging, but satisfying task of turning the theory into practice and creating the standards-setting procedures and support processes and infrastructure, and supervising their implementation in 2001. This system continues today.
From December 2002 until his retirement in August 2009 Dr John Bennett was Chief Executive of the Office of the Board of Studies NSW. During this time he oversaw the increased use of technology to support the assessment and credentialling programs, the introduction of heritage language courses and the establishment of some HSC-University Pathways Programs.
John was actively involved in interstate and national forums, in particular in his capacity as the NSW Chief Executive member of the Australasian Curriculum, Assessment and Certification Authorities (ACACA). On the international scene he provided advice and assistance to Government assessment and credentialing authorities including New Zealand, Scotland, Qatar and Indonesia. He presented papers at international conferences on assessment.
John was the 2009 recipient of the Australian College of Educators Wyndham Medal for ‘Outstanding contribution to the education of young people in NSW’. His address delivered at the presentation ceremony was entitled ‘The HSC – What Next?’. Wyndham Medal Address.
Later career
From January 2010 until February 2021 John was an Adjunct Professor in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales. During this time he conducted courses in the Master of Education programs in the areas of curriculum and assessment, as well as supervising research students. He was also a member of the Advisory Committee of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences.
He was involved in a number of reviews and evaluations for interstate assessment and credentialling authorities, chiefly in Queensland and South Australia. These included a review of the Queensland Core Skills Test and a review of the first-year implementation of the new SACE.
In April 2016 he joined the Board of Malek Fahd Islamic School and became its Chair in June 2017. This is one of the largest schools in Australia. In early 2020 John joined the Committee of Management of St Jude’s Early Learning Centre.
In August 2020 he was appointed to an Expert Advisory Group of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) to provide advice to AITSL in relation to the Teacher Performance Tasks established by universities as part of the training of pre-service teachers.
In March 2021 John was appointed to the Parish Council of St Jude’s Anglican Church in Randwick.
John was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his significant service to education, to mathematics, and to curriculum standards.
