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.
Kerr and Chung Publish in Journal of Educational Data Mining
In a newly published journal article, center researchers Deirdre Kerr and Greg Chung describe how they used cluster analysis to evaluate student performance on educational games. Such analyses are difficult due to the vast amounts of data generated by games and simulations compared to traditional multiple choice tests.
Click here to download the abstract of the Kerr and Chung article, "Identifying Key Features of Student Performance in Educational Video Games and Simulations through Cluster Analysis."
Click here to download the full article.
New CRESST Report on Impact of
Short-Term Science Teacher
Professional Development
In a new report, CRESST researchers found that short-term professional development for science teachers focused on pedagogical content knowledge was more effective than professional development related to subject matter knowledge at helping teachers identify critical elements of student understanding such as student misconceptions.
Find out more and download CRESST Report 822, The Impact of Short-Term Science Teacher Professional Development on the Evaluation of Student Understanding and Errors Related to Natural Selection now!
CRESST Co-Director Search
The Faculty of UCLA’s Department of Education continues its search for an energetic, creative scholar to serve as a CRESST Co-Director. CRESST is an internationally recognized research and development center that enjoys strong partnerships with leading institutions and researchers.
Top candidates will posses substantial records of research, leadership, collaboration, and scholarship.
Click here to read a complete job announcement and to submit an application to the search committee, headed by CRESST Co-Director Li Cai.
SMEP Honors CRESST Co-Director for Achievements
The Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology (SMEP) recently awarded CRESST Co-Director Li Cai with its Cattell Early Career Research Award. Named for Raymond B. Cattell, a founder of the SMEP, this award is given annually to honor a young researcher who has made outstanding contributions to multivariate experimental psychology and who shows promise of continued high quality work.
As this year's early career award honoree, Dr. Li Cai will deliver an address at next year's annual SMEP meeting in Florida.
UCLA Meeting Advances ELL Research
CRESST recently hosted a meeting of 20 national experts on English Language Learners (ELLs). The meeting, held at UCLA’s James West Alumni Center, was sponsored by ETS with funding from the American Educational Research Association.
The experts gathered to develop a national research agenda for improved instruction and assessment supporting the growing number of ELLs across the United States.
Click here to read a short article including a list of experts attending the UCLA meeting.
WestEd and CRESST Awarded New Center to Help Close Achievement Gaps
The U.S. Department of Education recently announced that WestEd and CRESST were competitively selected as the new Center on Standards and Assessments Implementation (CSAI). The CSAI will support states’ transition to new standards and assessments for college readiness.
The funding was part of the U.S. Department of Education’s $52 million shared across 22 comprehensive centers.
Click here for more information about how the CSAI will help schools meet the challenges of the Common Core State Standards. Click here for a related Education Week article.
Research by CRESST Co-Director Published in Major Journal
Considered one of the most important publications in the education field, the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics (JEBS) recently published an article co-authored by CRESST Co-Director Li Cai, who this year was honored by President Obama as one of the nation's leading early career scientists.
In the article, together with first author Taehun Lee from the University of Oklahoma, UCLA Professor Li Cai proposes an alternative method for conducting multiple imputation-based inference for mean and covariance structure modeling. The authors illustrate the method using three real data sets.
Click here for more information about this Taehun Lee and Li Cai article.
New Resource Paper Describes Games to Help Students Learn Math
A new resource paper describes a series of educational games developed by the Center for Advanced Technology in Schools at CRESST. Combining research on learning, instruction, assessment, and technology, the games help to improve middle school student understanding of fundamental math concepts.
Click here to download Resource Paper 15, "CATS-Developed Games."
Click here for more information about CATS research and products.
Cai and Hansen Publish in Noted Journal
In a recently published article in the British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, CRESST Co-Director Li Cai and UCLA Graduate Student Mark Hansen propose and illustrate a new test statistic.
Using simulations, they demonstrate the performance of their new method and illustrate its effectiveness using real data.
Click here to access their article, Limited-Information Goodness-of-Fit Testing of Hierarchical Item Factor Models.
CRESST ELL Research Published
The Applied Measurement in Education (AME) journal recently published CRESST research findings on the effects of glossary and read-aloud accommodations on English Language Learners performance on a mathematics assessment.
Click here to find out if the use of a glossary and read-alouds improved ELL performance.
Click here to read a similar study in the CRESST report series.
