Eric Crane works with WestEd national, state, and local clients to gauge school and student performance and make the best use of the results.

A Senior Research Associate with the Regional Educational Laboratory West (REL West) and Innovation Studies programs at WestEd, Crane leads and contributes to assessment and accountability research, development, evaluation, and consulting/technical assistance projects.

Crane focuses on building effective common formative assessment practices, public school accountability, statewide and district data systems, survey and test design, applied statistics and psychometrics, and program evaluation.

As part of his work with the Assessment and Standards Development Services, Crane directed WestEd's item development for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA).

Crane also serves on WestEd's Project Management Partner (PMP) Team for the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium as the PMP Liaison to the Reporting Work Group and Assessment Design: Test Administration Work Group.

Crane leads REL West's investigation of the region's districts in the Title I Local Educational Agency (LEA) Improvement program. This study informs the region's decision-makers about characteristics of districts in LEA Improvement and how such districts differ from those not in the program.

Crane coauthored three annual reports on the performance of California's charter schools:

• California’s Charter Schools: 2009 Update on Issues and Performance
• California's Charter Schools: 2008 Performance Update
• California's Charter Schools: Measuring Their Performance

Published by EdSource, these reports describe current issues and academic performance trends in the state's charter schools. Crane and fellow researchers analyzed statewide test data using a research method that made it possible to compare groups of schools that serve somewhat different students.

He also coauthored a national analysis of academic standards coherency, Setting Coherent Performance Standards. Published by CCSSO in 2006, the report describes the conditions contributing to a lack of coherence, the existing and evolving state practices for setting standards and using data, and developing performance-level descriptors for academic standards.

In 2009-10, Crane co-directed WestEd's statewide survey effort for the Rhode Island Department of Education's SurveyWorks! program.

Prior to joining WestEd, Crane managed the Research and Analysis Unit at the California Department of Education, where he provided technical and policy support during two different cycles of accountability systems in California. He conducted and oversaw simulation studies and sensitivity analyses on the Academic Performance Index (API), which California uses to summarize public school performance. When California melded its API-based system with No Child Left Behind accountability, Crane led studies that examined the likely impacts of various policy alternatives.

He has worked also as a private consultant on projects focused on test equating studies, program evaluations, and large-scale data analyses.

In November 2009, Crane was elected to the Board of Directors of the California Educational Research Association and currently serves as the Association's president (through November 2012). He also serves on the Board of Directors of Congregation Bet Haverim in Davis, CA.

Crane received an AB in economics from Princeton University and MA degrees in statistics and quantitative methods in education from the University of California, Berkeley. He completed PhD coursework and the PhD qualification examination in quantitative methods in education from the University of California, Berkeley.