Controversy Arises Over Test Scores Used for Teacher Evaluations

Including student test scores in teacher evaluations has created debate and controversy across the United States.

In a recent article published in the Times Free Press, CRESST Director Joan Herman addresses the question of fairness as Tennessee grapples with this challenging topic. Click here to find out what Dr. Herman has to say. 

For more information about using test scores in teacher evaluations, read a policy brief, "Developing and Selecting Assessments of Student Growth for Use in Teacher Evaluation Systems," authored by Joan Herman, Margaret Heritage, and Pete Goldschmidt. 

Using Survival Analysis to Understand Game Performance

Why do some students perform well on instructional games while others struggle? CRESST researchers examined that question using survival analysis techniques and found that conceptual instruction during a mathematics game contributed to student performance. Students with higher prior knowledge of fractions also were less likely to fail in the game.

Find out more in CRESST Report 812 by Jinok Kim and Greg Chung. 

CRESST Mourns the Loss of Professor Robert Glaser

CRESST joins with the entire education research community in mourning the passing of Professor Robert Glaser, co-founder of the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh and a long-time CRESST partner and colleague. A complete news release is available here.

A former president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the National Academy of Education, Professor Glaser, age 91, received more than a dozen distinguished awards for his outstanding teaching and research. In 1997, CRESST honored Dr. Glaser with a Distinguished Achievement Award for his  research that improved learning and instruction across the United States. Click here for more information about Professor Glaser’s numerous contributions to learning and assessment across the globe. 

CRESST Awarded Hewlett Foundation Grant To Study Assessments and Links to Deeper Learning

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has awarded CRESST a planning grant to evaluate the link between deeper student learning and two new assessments currently under development. Two consortia, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), and the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium, are creating next-generation state assessment systems to measure the Common Core State Standards, adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia.

Click here for a full news release. 

CRESST Awarded PBS Grant

CRESST has been selected for a $100,000 award from the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to develop an indicator and reporting system to measure game-based outcomes of the "Ready to Learn" PBS KIDS program.

“This is an exciting opportunity for CRESST/UCLA to have a large-scale positive impact on young children—and their parents and teachers—across America”, said Greg Chung, one of the researchers heading up the development effort together with Noelle Griffin, CRESST’s assistant director for research and development. CRESST Director Eva Baker will serve as the principal investigator on the project.

Click here for more details. 

Performance Assessments Rebound

Performance assessments, tests that require students to "show what they know," are back in the news thanks to federal funding of two large consortia who are creating new assessments to measure the Common Core State Standards. CRESST Director Joan Herman, co-author of the book "A Practical Guide to Alternative Assessment," is quoted in E-School News about how high costs pushed aside performance assessments in the early 1990's.  

Read what Dr. Herman has to say in Performance Assessment Making a Comeback in Schools.

Or read a free copy of The Practical Guide to Alternative Assessment on the CRESST web site. 

CRESST ELL Report Mentioned in Education Week

Education Week recently included a major new CRESST report in its Report Roundup Series. The report found that the longer that students were classified as English Language Learners, the greater the probability that they would eventually drop out of school.

Click here for the Education Week summary, Relationships Among and Between ELL Status, Demographic Characteristics, Enrollment History, and School Persistence. 

Click here for the full CRESST report. 

Abby Reisman Research Published in Major Journal

The journal Cognition and Instruction recently published an article by CRESST Senior Researcher Abby Reisman, reporting her findings from the "Reading Like a Historian" curriculum.  

Dr. Reisman found significant positive effects on four outcome measures that have important implications for both adolescent literacy instruction and history teaching. 

Find out more in her article, Reading Like a Historian: A Document-Based History Curriculum Intervention in Urban High Schools. 

New CRESST Report Examines Teacher Fidelity of Implementation

In this new report, CRESST researchers go beyond measuring the effects of a new program and examine the quality of implementation itself. 

Find out more in CRESST Report 811, Measuring Fidelity of Implementation- Methodological and Conceptual Issues and Challenges. 

You may also be interested in a related CRESST report, Relationships between Teacher Knowledge, Assessment Practice, and Learning- Chicken, Egg, or Omelet.

Professor Li Cai Named CRESST Co-Director

UCLA associate professor of education Li Cai has been named co-director of the Center for the Study of Evaluation and National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CSE/CRESST) at UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS). 

"I am very excited about Li Cai's joining the leadership team of Joan Herman, Robert Linn and myself," CSE/CRESST Director Eva Baker said. "His productivity and ingenuity are unprecedented. It is a brilliant appointment of a bright, visionary scholar who will greatly enhance CRESST's leadership in quantitative methods and psychometrics, now and into the future."

Please welcome Professor Cai to the CRESST family. A full UCLA news release is available here.