News
The latest news at CRESST
CRESST researchers publish well over 150 articles every year, primarily in distinguished peer-reviewed journals but also in more practice- or policy-focused publications such as Educational Leadership, Education Next, Phi Delta Kappan magazine, the American School Board Journal, and the National PTA's Our Children magazine.
CRESST partners publish scholarly books and are regularly quoted for their expertise in America's newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, or Chicago Tribune.
Our researchers serve as editors, co-editors, and reviewers for a number of national journals including the journal Educational Assessment.
Accolades for CRESST Partner Jamal Abedi
The National Association of Test Directors (NATD) recently announced that Professor Jamal Abedi, University of California, Davis, was selected to receive one of only two NATD Outstanding Achievement Awards for 2013.
Abedi, a longtime CRESST partner and former CRESST senior researcher, will be honored during this year's NATD annual business meeting on April 27th in San Francisco.
Dr. Abedi is being honored for his outstanding research to improved assessment of English Language Learners. He has been previously honored with the Outstanding Contribution Relating Research to Practice Award by the American Educational Research Association and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Educational Research Association.
Delacruz Awarded Distinguished Fellowship
CRESST Senior Researcher Girlie Delacruz was recently selected as a MacArthur Foundation/ETS Gordon Fellow in a recent announcement from Arizona State University and the Educational Testing Service.
Honoring the life and work of distinguished scholar Edmund W. Gordon, the fellowship will allow Dr. Delacruz to collaborate with other young scholars on learning and assessment activities with a focus on innovation, equity, and challenging education problems.
Dr. Delacruz, a young scholar in the field of technology, sensor-based networks, and games for both learning and assessment, will also be a presenter at this year's annual Education Writers Association meeting at Stanford University on Saturday, May 4th.
CRESST Research Improves Ontologies
This latest CRESST report describes how a new system called OntoMiner increases the accuracy of ontology generation.
Using concepts and relations, ontologies provide an understandable method for representing information that can be useful in learning research.
The CRESST researchers, Hamid Mousavi, Deirdre Kerr, and Markus Iseli, found that OntoMiner substantially increases the accuracy of ontology generation.
Read more in CRESST Report 827, Unsupervised Ontology Generation from Unstructured Text.
CRESST Research to Have Major Impact at AERA and NCME
CRESST researchers and colleagues will be participating in more than 90 presentations and special activities at this year's annual meetings of the American Educational Research Association and National Council on Measurement in Education.
Please join us in San Francisco, April 26th to May 1st, and find out how CRESST research and development are contributing to learning across the United States and beyond.
A list of CRESST and colleague events at AERA and NCME is available.
Busting Up Misconceptions About Formative Assessment
"People still talk about delivering instruction to children, as if they're mailboxes into which learning will be delivered," said CRESST Assistant Director for Professional Development Margaret Heritage in a recent article published by Education Week.
Heritage was an invited member of a special panel brought together in Washington DC by WestEd and the National Association of State Boards of Education. The purpose was to tackle a broad number of misconceptions about the use of formative assessment in the classroom.
Read the full Education Week article or a Kappan magazine article on formative assessment by Margaret Heritage.
Joan Herman Discusses Atlanta Cheating Scandal
CRESST Co-Director (emeritus) Joan Herman was recently heard on the Marketplace program of American Public Media discussng the Atlanta cheating scandal.
The story and broadcast are both availabile.
AERA Honors Eva L. Baker with Award
The American Educational Research Association announced that CRESST Co-Director and UCLA Distinguished Research Professor Eva L. Baker is the recipient of this year's prestigious E.F. Lindquist Award.
Named in honor of E.F. Lindquist, a pioneering scholar and researcher who co-founded the American College Testing Program (ACT), Professor Baker is being honored for her outstanding research in the field of testing and measurement.
"The Lindquist Award is a very well deserved tribute to Professor Baker's extraordinary work," said Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, Dean of the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. "I am incredibly proud to have Eva as a colleague and leader of a foremost research and development center."
A news release is available.
Impact Evaluation Shows Mixed Results
A new evaluation led by CRESST Senior Researcher Jia Wang found that the UCLA teacher education program IMPACT had mixed results.
Teacher apprentices had a successful experience and often applied what they learned in the program to their teaching. But IMPACT did not significantly increase teacher content knowledge in math or science. Nor did the program produce significant changes in teacher instructional strategies, a key program goal.
The full evaluation is available on the CRESST web site as is a short summary.
Mark Hansen Receives Dissertation Grant
CRESST Graduate Student Researcher Mark Hansen recently was awarded a highly selective National Science Foundation Grant for his dissertation Hierarchical Item Response Models for Cognitive Diagnosis.
"This prestigious award will fund continued work that builds on Mark's innovative research in psychometrics and statistical modeling," said CRESST Co-Director Li Cai who is also Mark's advisor in the Social Research Methodology Division of the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.
Mark is co-author of several prominent CRESST reports, including a recent evaluation of Green Dot's Locke Transformation Project. "Mark's work has important implications for data analysis and practice in educational testing, psychological assessment, and health-related outcomes," added Professor Cai.
