After teaching mathematics to secondary pupils, he worked for his Ph.D. with the Concepts in Secondary Mathematics and Science project (CSMS) at Chelsea (now King's) College, London and on mathematical problem solving for junior school children at the Polytechnic of the South Bank with Leone Burton. Since joining NFER in 1980, he has worked on and led a range of projects on assessment involving both national and international assessments.
In the international field he has been involved with the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) since the late 1990s. He is the international mathematics co-ordinator for the current 2007 TIMSS survey and was part of a three person team which developed the mathematics assessments for the 2003 survey. He was National Research Co-ordinator for England for both the 1999 and 2003 surveys and also undertook this role for Scotland in 2003. He has also been involved with questionnaire development for TIMSS.
Apart from international assessment, much of Dr. Ruddock's recent work has focused on National Curriculum assessment in both England and Wales. He currently directs the development of both key stage 2 and key stage 3 statutory science tests for use in England and recently undertook the same role for the development of new optional mathematics tests for years 7 and 8. Also in mathematics, he has also directed the development of key stage 3 tests for England and Wales (1994 to 1999 tests) and tests for both key stages 2 and 3 in Wales (2003 and 2004 tests).
In the early years of the national curriculum, 1989 to 1990, he was project co-ordinator of the NFER consortium's development of Standard Assessment Tasks for the core subjects at key stage 1, and from 1991 to 1993 he played a similar role in the NFER's evaluation of National Curriculum Assessment at key stage 3, covering mathematics, science, English and technology.
From 1980 to 1988 he was Project Leader of the project to monitor performance in mathematics in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This was carried out by NFER under the auspices of the government's Assessment of Performance Unit. His role included survey designs, item development and selection of items to use in surveys of both 11 and 15 year olds.
