Evidence Framework for Innovation and Excellence in Education

UCLA’s Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Testing (CRESST), working with its partner organization, the Center for Advanced Technology in Schools (CATS), has developed an innovative approach to identifying the conceptual content for inclusion in instruction and assessment.

With funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, CATS is developing learning games focused on acquiring pre-algebra schema and skills. For this effort, CRESST designed approaches to build in valid outcome development and then strategies to compare means that lead to the most effective learning.

To develop the goals for the games and to make them congruent with Common Core State Standards, the R&D team used the design of ontology to translate the verbal standards statements into network representations that define the universe of content and cognition included in the standards. READ MORE

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched its ENGAGE research program to focus on the development of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills and social-emotional learning in a learning-game setting for early elementary-level students. DARPA usually focuses on the development of advanced technology and hardware for the military, but has teamed with the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to work on STEM education because it is such an important national priority.

With funding from the ENGAGE program, UCLA‘s Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Testing (CRESST) is partnering with the game development firm Intific to teach 5- and 6-year-olds fundamental physics concepts and principles. These are generally force and motion; specifically, they are concepts drawn from the National Academy of Sciences Framework for K-12 Science Education that are targeted to fifth-grade students (e.g., friction and velocity). READ MORE