Eva Baker ’63, M.A. ’65, Ed.D. ’67

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As director of UCLA's Center for the Study of Evaluation (CSE), a professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSEIS), co-director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) and a prolific scholar and author, Eva Baker has served the educational community of California for the last three decades. She has dedicated her career to researching methods to improve K-12 and adult educational testing policies and practice, informing national and state congressional leaders on urgent testing issues, and developing an innovative assessment system of the highest standards

Baker began her work at the CSE in 1975, just eight years out of graduate school, with eight books already under her belt. In 1985, the consortium of experts she developed competed for and won a multimillion-dollar federal grant, which paved the way for CRESST's formation. Today, the two centers bring nearly $10 million to UCLA each year for educational research purposes.

Despite her intense dedication to her research and university teaching, Baker is not an ivory tower academic. Her efforts have ensured that her work has had a definitive, positive impact on the welfare of this country's schools. Her UCLA models are becoming a major component of a new standard-based assessment system for the Los Angeles Unified School District. She has undertaken a major project to assist the Chicago Public Schools with their assessment program, analyzing techniques and recommending new procedures. And she has recently helped develop the Quality School Portfolio, a software program that allows schools to analyze and report data relative to their standards. She co-chaired the Revision of Standards for Educational & Psychological Testing 1999, guidelines for the entire field of testing.

Beyond her immediate career duties, Baker has made numerous contributions to her field with a proliferation of books, chapters, research articles and instructional materials – nearly 500 in all. She has participated in countless programs, societies and committees related to her profession, including the American Association for Higher Education and the California Federation of Teachers, and was chair of the National Academies of Sciences/National Research Council Board on Testing and Assessment. For all of her efforts, she has been rewarded with such honors as the California Educational Research Association's Lifetime Achievement Award and the American Educational Research Association's Presidential Citation.