Educational Data Mining: Pickaxe or Fishing Pole?

In a recent UCLA presentation, CRESST Graduate Student Researcher Deirdre Kerr explained not just what data mining is, but how she has been using it to examine research data from an educational video game. 

Click here to read Deirdre Kerr's UCLA presentation, Educational Data Mining: Pickaxe or Fishing Pole?

Click here to read a related CRESST report written by Deirdre Kerr and Greg Chung, Using Cluster Analysis to Extend Usability Testing to Instructional Content. 

Click here to send a question to Deirdre Kerr. 

CRESST Assessments Used by UCLA Community School to Measure Learning

With generous support from AT&T, UCLA's Community School is adapting CRESST's Integrated Learning Assessments to measure students' literacy development and depth of understanding in social studies and history. 

CRESST Senior Researcher Julia Phelan is participating on a research team that is adapting the innovative  assessments. She is sharing her expertise on assessment development, administration, and scoring with the team as they develop the new assessments to help measure student progress in meeting the Community School's rigorous standards.

Click here to read a comprehensive article describing the new project. 

Heritage Book Shares Guidance on Formative Assessment

CRESST Assistant Director for Professional Development Margaret Heritage is the author of a new book that provides research-based guidance for teachers and administrators looking to use formative assessment to improve instruction and learning. 

"[Heritage's] analysis of formative assessment reflects the real-world, what's next thinking of a seasoned practitioner and, at the same time, the carefully documented, thoroughly researched approach of a full-fledged academic," says UCLA Professor (emeritus) W. James Popham about this latest Heritage publication.  

Click here for more information about Margaret Heritage's new book, Formative Assessment in Practice: A Process of Inquiry and Action.

CRESST Supports Afterschool Learning

CRESST Co-Director Eva Baker and former CRESST Senior Researcher Denise Huang have written articles to support the importance of afterschool programs.

Baker and Huang's contributions will be an important part of a February 5th Washington DC webinar, Expanding Minds and Opportunities: Leveraging the Power of Afterschool and Summer Learning for Student Success.

A compendium of articles is available on the "Expanding Minds" web site, demonstrating the value of high quality afterschool programs. Click here to read many of them.  

Click here to read Professor Baker's article explaining the impact of afterschool programs in many countries or click here for Denise Huang's article on the use of research to improve afterschool learning.

CRESST Reports Results from Green Dot Locke Transformation

In 2007, one of California's lowest performing high schools, Alain Leroy Locke, was transformed into a set of smaller charter academies with the goal of increasing achievement and improving other student outcomes.

A new CRESST report provides results from a study of teacher factors that influence Locke student academic progress. Among the key findings was a reported increase in school organizational quality and more professional development opportunities, plus a teacher desire for increased collaboration between academies. 

Click here to download a copy of CRESST Report 824, Evaluation of Green Dot's Locke Transformation Project: From the Perspective of Teachers and Administrators. 

Heritage Publishes Chapter in New Assessment Book

CRESST Assistant Director for Professional Development Margaret Heritage recently published a chapter in a new book published by Information Age Publishing. Dylan Wiliam, Rick Stiggins, and Susan Brookhart are among the many distinguished authors in this new book, Informing the Practice of Teaching Using Formative and Interim Assessment. 

Click here to find out more about Margaret's chapter, Using Assessment Information in Real Time: What Teachers Need to Know and Be Able to Do. 

Department of Education Features CRESST English Language Learner Research

The U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences recently featured a series of CRESST English Language Learner (ELL) studies in their on-line newsletter.

Using data from three states, researchers Jinok Kim and Joan Herman studied state ELL reclassification criteria related to academic growth. They found that overly stringent ELL reclassification criteria could be associated with slower growth rates in middle school math and a lower probability that ELLs remained in school. 

Among the researchers' recommendations was that schools may need to take a more individualized approach for ELL course taking, particularly in middle school. 

Click here to read the IES newsletter and learn more about the Jinok Kim and Joan Herman research findings. 

New CRESST Article by Margaret Heritage

"Our reading takes on different forms depending on our identities as readers," explains CRESST Assistant Director for Professional Development Margaret Heritage in her latest article: "Evidence of Academic Literacies." 

Heritage identifies the types of knowledge and skills that are needed to understand four very different types of reading tasks in this new engaging article. She also addresses the types of evidence that can help teachers to assess student understanding on different types of literacy tasks, as well as how they might adjust their own teaching to increase student comprehension and learning.

Click here to read "Evidence of Academic Literacies."

Click here to read other CRESST articles. 

CRESST Examines Consortia Assessments

A January 16, 2013 webinar hosted by the Alliance for Excellent Education presented findings from a new UCLA research study funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. During the webinar, CRESST Co-director Joan Herman shared results based on a detailed analysis of the plans and progress from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC).

Click here to download the new CRESST report, "On the Road to Assessing Deeper Learning: The Status of Smarter Balanced and PARCC Assessment Consortia."

View a related EdMedia Commons article, "UCLA Report Highlights Potential, Challenges of New Assessments." 

Read a related Education Week article, "Common Assessments Hold Promise…"

CRESST Partners with U.S. Navy to Improve Training and Readiness

A 2011 issue of Surface Warfare magazine highlights the important role that CRESST is performing to help educate and train U.S. Navy personnel, especially to improve the skills of Tactical Action Officers. 

A partnership between CRESST and the U.S. Navy garnered an Excellence in Practice award from the American Society for Training and Development for their design and implementation of a new high technology training system.  

Click here to download the article, "SWOS: Training Integration Reaches New Heights." CRESST is mentioned on pages 15-16.