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:
California Department of Education's Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP)
DRDP(2015) suite of assessments are now available for early implementation! The DRDP(2015) assessments are authentic observational assessment tools used throughout California to support the development for children from early infancy through kindergarten. For over 15 years, BEAR Center researchers collaboratively refined the tool to ensure that it is a valid and reliable measurement of development in early childhood. BEAR Center is responsible for the DRDPtech technology system.
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
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The latest volume of Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives (Volume 12, Issue 4, 2014) is now available
- This issue is explores the methodological disagreement concerning causal indicators, discussing wether they are inherently sensitive to interpretational confounding or not.
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Selected presentations by BEAR Center researchers:
News & Events
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Understanding California Superintendents’ Beliefs About School Climate Data and its Uses: A Multidimensional Modeling Approach
Brent Duckor, Anji Buckner, & Yidan Zhang
Abstract Academic outcomes and health outcomes are critical to the goals of K-12 public education. Recent education policy reforms in California rely on the use multiple measures of school success—with a focus on school climate. A critical component in state-led accountability, there is a need to better understand the role of leaders’ beliefs about school climate assessment tools and practices, to better understand capacity to implement reform.
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Dyadic Trust Measurements Applied to Assessment in a Clinical Learning Setting
Brian Gin & Stephanie Tsoi, University of California, San Francisco
Abstract...
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AERA/NCME/IOMW Rehearsal
GSE Students
GSE students in Quantitative Methods and Evaluation/Social Research Methodology program and BEAR Center researchers who are presenting at the 2019 AERA/NCME/IOMW conference meetings will share their works. Measuring Integrative Inferential Reasoning (IIR) using Modern Objective Measurement Alexander Mario Blum, James M. Mason, JinHo Kim and P. David Pearson...