 Besides its nationally recognized work in supporting rigorous evaluation and assessment in educational settings, CRESST has conducted the best known out-of-school-time program evaluation in its examination of the LA's BEST program (Better Educated Students for Tomorrow). LA's BEST serves more than 23,000 students in 147 elementary schools in Los Angeles, CA. The program focuses on academic tutoring, enrichment, recreation activities, nutrition, and self-esteem development. The Department of Justice also funds CRESST to examine the long-term effect of attending LA's BEST in terms of academic, juvenile crime, and delinquency outcomes.
Through its evaluation of the LA's BEST program, CRESST has developed and applied a variety of indicators of program effectiveness (e.g., student attendance); several performance measures (e.g., achievement tests, homework completion, grades, language re-designation); an assortment of non-cognitive measures (e.g., safety, attitudes toward school, relationships with adults); and different observation protocols for examining program quality. As part of its current research, CRESST is using advanced methodologies such as hierarchical linear modeling and structural equation modeling to examine the immediate and longitudinal effects of LA's BEST on student performance and adjustment, using a quasi-experimental design.
Through its extensive work on evaluation issues, CRESST has developed an array of assessment tools and procedures that will support the work of validating promising and exemplary practices. For a more detail description of current projects, please go to www.cresst.org.
CRESST's Partnership Role
CRESST's principal responsibility in the Partnership is managing the identification and validation of promising and exemplary practices. This work includes development of standards, criteria, assessment procedures and tools, and data analysis methodologies. The CRESST staff also trains other Partnership staff and consultants in the use of assessment procedures and tools, and develops and maintains a database of assessment information.
CRESST collaborates with SEDL in developing models and tools to monitor and guide the quality assurance process of the Partnership work, as well as the development of self-assessment models, strategies, and tools to assist the afterschool programs in advancing their self-assessment capabilities.
Project Staff
Joan Herman, Coordination Oversight
As a co-director for CRESST, Dr. Herman is part of a distinguished group of research scholars whose efforts have produced innovative evaluation designs and new analytic techniques, helping states, districts, and schools to improve their programs and accountability systems. Dr. Herman has conducted many studies on the evaluation of educational programs, accountability indicators and reporting, and applying new information technologies. Other recent projects include working with the National School Boards Foundation and the American Association of School Administrators in studying data use and reporting practices; evaluation of the California Professional Development Institutes in reading for pre-kindergarten through grade 3; evaluation of the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project; and evaluation of the Walt Disney Company's Creative Learning Communities grant program.
Dr. Herman served as an associate director of CRESST from
1983 until 2000. Prior to that, she was assistant director
of the Center for the Study of Evaluation at the UCLA Graduate
School of Education. She holds a BA in English from the University
of California, Berkeley, and an MA in learning and instruction
and an EdD in learning and instruction from UCLA.
Denise Huang, Validation and Site Visit Coordinator
Dr. Huang is a senior research associate with CRESST. She currently leads the research team conducting evaluations on afterschool programs. Her work has included an evaluation study of 75 of the LA's BEST sites, providing a comprehensive overview from the perspectives of different participants, evaluation studies of implementing an afterschool literacy component, research to define a comprehensive set of indicators for afterschool programs, and work in collaboration with CRESST's technology team to modify the Quality School Portfolio (QSP) system for the LA's BEST sites. More recently, her work has included studies on implementing the Literacy Loop tutoring program; on the long-term effect of LA's BEST on students; on the social capitals of LA's BEST; and on the long-term effects on criminal, delinquency, and academic outcomes of former LA's BEST students, a study funded by the Department of Justice.
Before becoming a senior research associate with CRESST, Dr.
Huang served as executive director and program consultant for
PCH Schools, Inc. She holds a BS in psychology, an MA in
education curriculum and instruction, and a PhD in educational
psychology from the University of Southern California.
Pete Goldschmidt, Database Manager
Mr. Goldschmidt presently serves as lead quantitative researcher on several state and federal projects, including the Los Angeles Unified School District performance assignment validation study, which involves teacher-capacity building and an online rater training system; the California Professional Development Institutes evaluation; School Accountability analysis; and longitudinal evaluation research development. He also directs and mentors graduate student research associates. His current work includes a study funded by the Department of Justice on the long-term effects on criminal, delinquency, and academic outcomes of former LA's BEST students.
Prior to joining CRESST in 2000, Mr. Goldschmidt was a senior
researcher at the California Educational Research Cooperative,
University of California, Riverside. He has a BA in economics
from UCLA, an MA in economics from UC Santa Barbara, and
a PhD from the School of Education, Division of Social Research
Methodology, from UCLA.
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