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. 

CRESST Welcomes Christine Ong

CRESST is extremely pleased to welcome Dr. Christine Ong as a new senior researcher. Her past work has examined approaches in assessing student learning and classroom quality, particularly within early childhood programs. Dr. Ong also has expertise in the research of English Language Learners’ academic language proficiency.

Prior to CRESST, Dr. Ong worked as a research analyst at First 5 LA and participated in the planning and dissemination of several large-scale evaluation studies, including the Los Angeles Universal Preschool Child Outcome Study (UPCOS) and the LA County Healthy Kids evaluation. 

A warm welcome to Dr. Ong.

Eva Baker Named Among Top Education Scholars

CRESST Director Eva Baker has been named among the nation’s most influential education scholars by the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy institute based in Washington, D.C.

According to an article in UCLA Today, “The annual rankings recognize  university-based academics who are contributing most substantially to public debate about schools and schooling.”

In addition to her CRESST and UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies responsibilities, Eva Baker is president of the World Education Research Association. Click here for the full UCLA Today article.

Baker Presents at International Conference on Education

In December 2011, Eva Baker, CRESST Director and President of the World Education Research Association, presented at the Taiwan Educational Research Association (TERA) International Conference on Education. 

Professor Baker's presentation, Towards Imagining a Coherent, Engaging Educational System, is available here. 

Hundreds of other CRESST presentations on a wide variety of accountability and learning topics are also available on the CRESST web site. 

Assessment In a Changing World

Our world is rapdily evolving and so is assessment.

In a presentation to the Symposium on Assessment and Learner Outcomes in New Zealand, CRESST Director Eva Baker describes assessment in a changing world. 

Download her presentation here. 

Dozens of other CRESST presentations from 2011 and earlier are also avaialble on the CRESST web site. Please take a look. 

CRESST Contributes to Successful Formative Assessment in States

A new report from the Institute of Education Sciences credits important contributions by the Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center (AACC) to help states and schools understand and use formative assessment in the classroom.

WestEd and CRESST are partners in the AACC. 

Read the IES report here or visit the AACC web site. 

Margaret Heritage Discusses Formative Assessment with EdWeek

Margaret Heritage, CRESST Assistant Director for Professional Development, recently spoke with Education Week about helping teachers effectively use formative assessment to improve student learning.  

Good formative assessment doesn't come in a package, says Ms. Heritage. 

Find out more by clicking here. 

Or check out the Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center's many resources to help teachers and schools use data and assessment.

CRESST Research Shared at California Educational Research Association

CRESST Senior Researcher Terry Vendlinski presented recent CRESST research on the use of games for learning at the annual California Educational Research Association conference in Anaheim. He also presented work on the use of formative assessments to improve middle school mathematics performance. 

Download Terry's presentations here.  

Ron Dietel's tips on how to improve your next presentation are available at the same location. Or click here for tips on how to write and use social media to share your research with just about any audience. 

New CRESST Report Points to ELL Dropout Issue

A new comprehensive CRESST report shows that the longer a student is designated as an ELL, the more likely he or she is to drop out of school.

Download a copy of CRESST Report 810, Relationships Among and Between ELL Status, Demographic Characteristics, Enrollment History, and School Persistence. 

Review other recent CRESST ELL reports. 

CRESST International Collaboration

Each year, CRESST collaborates with dozens of international scholars, sharing research that contributes to improved learning and accountability systems throughout the world. 

CRESST Director Joan Herman (center) and Senior Researcher Yunyun Dai (left) recently met with Professor Gangping Wu to discuss possible joint work between CRESST and East China Normal University and its Institute for Curriculum and Instruction.

Dr. Wu has been a leader in China's K-12 curriculum reform and a visiting scholar at UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studes.