Joan L. Herman is Director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) at UCLA. Her research has explored the effects of accountability and assessment on schools and teachers and the design of assessment systems to support school planning and instructional improvement. Her recent work has focused on the quality and consequences of teachers' formative assessment practices. She also has wide experience as an evaluator of school reform.

Dr. Herman is noted in bridging research, and practice, particularly in applications serving English Language Learners and at-risk students. Among her books are Tracking Your School's Success: A Guide to Sensible School-Based Evaluation; and A Practical Guide to Alternative Assessment, both of which have been popular resources for schools across the country. A former teacher and school board member, Dr. Herman is an elected AERA fellow, has published extensively in research journals and is a frequent advisor to prominent national and state research and development initiatives, including repeated service to the National Academy. She is past president of the California Educational Research Association; has held a variety of leadership positions in the American Educational Research Association, National Organization of Research Centers, and Knowledge Alliance; chairs the Para Los Niños school board, and is current editor of the research journal, Educational Assessment.

Lynn Winters was the Assistant Superintendent for Research Long Beach Unified School District, nationally recognized by the President and the Broad Prize for implementing systems for data guided decision making. She currently consults for Urban School Imagineers training urban school data teams and evaluating an urban school leadership training program.. Prior positions include Lecturer in Social Research Methods at the UCLA Graduate School of Education, high school teaching (history, Spanish and Special Education); county office assessment consultant; Director of Research for Palos Verdes Schools; and Project Director for three grants at the UCLA National Center for Evaluation, Student Standards and Testing.She has co-authored two books with Joan Herman of UCLA CRESST, A Practical Guide to Alternative Assessment,(ASCD) and Tracking Your School’s Success (Corwin Press), and is a reviewer for Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation (PARE), the AERA journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA, and Educational Assessment. In addition, she has over a dozen published journal articles and regularly presents at the American Educational Research Association’s Annual Meeting.