CREA@Illinois | CREA | EQI
Centre for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment
CREA@Illinois
The Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment (CREA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is located at the College of Education, Bureau of Educational Research. It is an interdisciplinary endeavor that brings researchers together from across the College and University, as well as domestic and international research partners, to address the growing need for policy-relevant studies that take seriously the influences of cultural norms, practices, and expectations in the design, implementation, and evaluation of social and educational interventions.
The creation of an interdisciplinary evaluation Center is grounded in the need for designing and conducting evaluations and assessments that embody cognitive, cultural and interdisciplinary diversity. To address questions, issues, theories, and practice related to what has come to termed “culturally responsive evaluation” (CRE) and culturally responsive educational assessment.
Our focus is to establish a national presence in educational research, evaluation, and assessment unique among its peers. Integrating teaching, research and scholarship relevant to the cultural context in educational research, evaluation and assessment, we not only serve the College of Education but graduate students in applied fields such as social work, nursing, public health and STEM-related fields. The overall goal of the Center is to encourage not only culturally sensitive research but culturally responsive as well. Culturally sensitive and responsive practices both recognize ethnicity and position culture as central to the research process.