About BEAR
The Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research (BEAR) Center designs and delivers educational assessment instruments, performs research in assessment and psychometrics, and trains graduate students in these areas.
We collaborate with researchers in universities across the United States and abroad to develop software and other resources for constructing, managing, administering, and analyzing assessments.
Featured Projects
The core of our research is development and use of appropriate assessment methods for evaluating students, schools, educational policy, and the reform of educational evaluation away from the use of inappropriate standardized tests.
These are some examples of the projects that we are actively developing:
Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) - California Department of Education
The Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) is the assessment required for all children in all state-funded early care and education programs in California. DRDP assesses the key domains of development for children from early infancy through kindergarten. Beginning in 2001, the BEAR Center researchers have designed and implemented valid and reliable measurement of development in early childhood, and created the DRDPtech assessment software system for teachers.
Project Aspire - Defining and Assessing Mathematical Knowledge For Teaching Secondary Mathematics
The BEAR Center is collaborating with a team of mathematics education content experts at Arizona State University led by Pat Thompson on this NSF-funded project. The goal of Project Aspire is to develop an instrument that assesses secondary mathematics teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching secondary mathematics.
Assessing Data Modeling and Statistical Reasoning (ADM)
The ADM project aims to develop an assessment system to evaluate elementary and middle school students’ skills and understanding related to data modeling and statistical reasoning.
Our Software
In addition to our research in psychometrics, the BEAR Center is dedicated to the development of software that can facilitate the delivery and analysis of assessments, providing teachers with innovative and useful ways to assess students.
Recent Publications
-
The latest volume of Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives (Volume 11, Issue 1-2, 2013) is now available
This issue is explores the ramifications of testing in the classroom, with a view to maximizing the benefits and minimizing possible drawbacks of current educational testing applications.
-
Selected presentations by BEAR Center researchers:
News & Events
-
AERA/NCME/IOMW Practice Day
QME Student Presenters
Members of the BEAR community who are presenting at the AERA/NCME/IOMW meetings in March and April will share their work. Both poster sessions and paper presentations will be included. Poster Presentations 2:10 – 3:00 1. Diah Wihardini - Multidimensional Rasch Analysis of Indonesian Students' Performance in PISA 2. Jinho Kim - Investigation of Item Properties of the Carbon Cycle Test using the LLTM for Polytomous Items ...
-
Learning Evaluation? Research Results
Claire Tourmen, University of Burgundy/AgroSup Dijon
Studies in different fields of evaluation (program evaluation, learning and competencies evaluation) show that certain evaluators are more efficient and perform better than others. Why? I will develop research results based on the observation of program evaluators, teachers and professional trainers evaluating in real conditions, in the workplace. Referring to Jean Piaget’s theory of learning (1936) as applied to adults and workers (Billett, 2001, Vergnaud, 2001), I will show that ...
-
A Testing Model for Measuring English Speaking and Writing Abilities as One of the 21st Century’s Key Competencies
Dongkwang Shin, Korean Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation
This study aims to suggest a testing model for measuring English speaking and writing abilities as one of the 21st Century’s Key Competencies. The future key competencies which are being set up by many countries commonly include a command of a foreign language, the ability to deal with Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and problem-solving abilities. Those abilities need to be considered as part of true English competence.