Educational scholar juggles roles to put family first

You might not expect that she was once a Brownie leader or that one of her favorite possessions is a waterproof Ipod and headset. Or that as a globe-traveling UCLA scholar, she still manages to make it to many of her grandsons’ basketball, baseball and soccer games.

 

Triple UCLA alumnus Eva Baker, a Graduate School of Education & Information Studies distinguished professor, takes as much pride in being a good wife, mom and grandmother as she does in her recent election as the first-ever, full-term president of the World Education Research Association (WERA). WERA is a newly formed international society of 27 research organizations advancing education research, science and scholarship around the world. Baker played a major role in its creation.

 

“There isn’t anything more important to me than my family,” explained Baker, director of UCLA’s National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST). Funded by highly competitive grants and contracts, CRESST conducts research, development and evaluation for improved assessment and education from pre-K through adult learning. “The tension between work demands and family obligations has always been hard to manage.” she added.

 

 

Somehow Baker, who was honored by the UCLA Alumni Association in 2001 with a professional achievement award, deftly juggles both responsibilities in a pretty remarkable fashion. Having brought in more than $150 million to UCLA in grants and contracts over the years, she regularly advises state, national and international governments on better ways to test both students and adults. Most recently, she’s been providing expert advice to the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top assessment program, which will lead to new tests for measuring core, nationwide education standards.

 

Baker is also co-directing the research and development of innovative math and literacy assessments under a new $4.3 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In the past ten years, Baker, together with longtime colleague and fellow UCLA alumna Joan Herman, have more than doubled the center’s annual budget, from $5 million in 1999 to more than $10 million in 2009, and nearly $26 million in total multi-year funds today.  

 

While UCLA has faced a bleak employment picture, CRESST continues to grow under Baker and Herman’s leadership, with approximately 120 employees, including doctorate-level education research scientists, masters-level assistant scientists, graduate students, undergraduates and administrative staff.

 

A substantial number of UCLA students have found a long-term home at CRESST, including Greg Chung, a former GSE&IS doctoral student who now co-leads, with Baker and James Stigler in the Department of Psychology, the $10 million Center for Advanced Technology in Schools. The new center is closely aligned with Baker’s own personal interest in computer games, which she says dates back to the days when she played Pac-Man and Pong.

 

Baker’s focus on education goes back to the 1960s. After graduating from UCLA, she taught Peace Corps volunteers how to teach before they were sent to foreign countries. That experience led to her long-time concern about international education, fairness issues in testing and better learning opportunities for disadvantaged students.

 

“Tests should primarily help to improve schools and teaching so that all students have better opportunities to succeed,” said Baker, who generally disdains the punishment aspect of many tests. In the past few years, she and other CRESST researchers have created innovative performance-based assessments, called Powersource, that help middle-school teachers identify students who don’t understand key principles in math. Teachers use the results to try new instructional strategies in algebra. 

 

In 1999, Baker became co-chair of the Committee to Revise the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, created by the American Educational Research Association, National Council of Measurement in Education and American Psychological Association. The committee substantially expanded protection of students against unfair testing practices.

 

As the nation moves forward toward a system of national K-12 standards and potential national tests, Baker continues to remind policymakers that testing by itself can have more negative than positive effects on students, such as when tests are used to deny a student a high school diploma.

 

“California and other states have greatly increased the amount of testing, but it has done little if anything to decrease achievement gaps,” said Baker. “Teaching, professional development and high quality assessments working together as a system are more likely to produce the types of changes we need.”

 

In May, Baker will begin her two-year WERA presidency with a kick-off research-gathering in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Among her goals are to develop long-term financial support for the new organization and to recruit new participants, especially from developing countries.

 

In what little spare time she has, Baker sometimes escapes to Kauai, her favorite place on the planet. Closer to home, she enjoys, with husband Harry, the tranquil pleasure of an Asian garden in her own backyard, an occasional rock concert and the chance to cook in her recently remodeled kitchen.

 

“The work and family balance is still a goal in progress,” said Baker, “but I get a bit closer every year.”