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.
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 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 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.
CRESST Mourns Death of Valuable Colleague
Wally Feurzeig, inventor of the LOGO programming language and a well known artificial intelligence researcher, passed away quietly in early January at his home. Wally was providing expert guidance on both physics content and game design for the CRESST Engage project, supporting science learning for young children in grades K-3.
"Wally was a good friend and a genius who helped us think in ways we never thought possible," said CRESST Co-Director Eva Baker. CRESST offers its condolences to Wally's family and colleagues around the world.
Click here for more information about Wally's many contributions to the computer science field and to learning.
CRESST Co-Director Publishes in New Book
Together with other distinguished measurement experts, CRESST Co-Director Li Cai has published a major chapter in a recently published book edited by Michael Edwards from Ohio State University and Robert McCallum from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Cai's new chapter pays homage to Michael Brown, one of the giants in the improvement of latent variable models.
Click here for more information about Co-Director Li Cai's new chapter published in "Current Topics in the Theory and Application of Latent Variable Models."
