Staff Directory

Dr Robert Simons

Position:

Principal Research Fellow 

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Division:

Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation 

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Location:

Sydney 

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Publications:

http://works.bepress.com/robert_simons/ 

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Qualifications:

BA (Philosophy), MDiv (Prof), MTh (Ac), DTh CUA, Post Doc Harvard GSAS, MCAP, JNI

 

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Dr Simons joined ACER in March 2010 as a Principal Research Fellow in the Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation (PAPE) research program at ACER. He is currently the Project Director for the Commonwealth Government’s Evaluation of the Empowering Local Schools (ELS) Initiative Phase One.  The objective of ELS Phase One (2012-2014) is to empower schools to make decisions at a local level, supporting them to better respond to the needs of students and the school community and provide services designed to assist their students to achieve their best educational outcomes.

Previously, he had responsibility for the evaluation of the NAB's Schools First initiative, a three-year national demonstration project in best practice school-community partnerships for enhanced student learning and development outcomes, during the first three years of the initiative from 2009-2011. Related publications include The First Interim Report of Schools First (2010); The Second Interim Report of Schools First (2011), an ACER Policy Brief Schools in their Communities (http://works.bepress.com/robert_simons/3/), and The Final Report of NAB Schools First Awards – 2009-2012 (2012).

Dr Simons has recently completed a Masters in Counselling and Applied Psychotherapy (MCAP) as a component of continuing professional development.

Prior to joining ACER, he was Head of Research and Evaluation at The Smith Family from 1999-2010. While there he established an internal research capacity to inform policy and program development. He developed an evaluation framework for pilot testing and program and model performance, and incorporated evidence from program evaluation to influence policy at Commonwealth (including DEEWR and MCEETYA) and State levels. In addition, he produced The Smith Family’s policy position in response to the Australian Higher Education Review.

His role also involved collaborating with the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM), the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS), and the Centre for Program Evaluation (CPE) in the selection of research methodologies, analysis of findings and editing of major research reports. He also produced internal literature reviews for a ‘Snapshot Series’ of research reports accessible to a broad range of stakeholders, and both contributed to and edited an interdisciplinary literature review and related collateral on financial literacy and wellbeing in collaboration with AXA Asia Pacific.

Dr Simons worked in public health from 1995–1999 as Manager Professional Education and Training at the NSW Cancer Council. The role involved the development of communication skills resources for GPs, nurses, and oncology specialists, as well as best practice breast and colorectal guidelines for health professional and specialists.

During 1994-1995 Dr Simons competed successfully for a Post Doctoral Fellowship at Harvard University in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The Fellowship resulted in the publication of Competing Gospels: Public Theology and Economic Theory EJ Dwyer, 1995. (HarperCollins picked up distribution after EJ Dwyer.)

From 1986 to 1994 he held the positions of Academic Dean, Topic Convenor, and Senior Lecturer in the Adelaide College of Divinity, which was part of the Department of Health, Education, Law and Theology at The Flinders University of South Australia.

In the United States he held the position of Associate Professor at Mary Immaculate Seminary, an accredited graduate school of theology, from 1977—1985.

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