POLICY AND PRACTICE The Education Endowment Foundation


Championing what works


Lee Elliot Major describes an evidence-led initiative that is gaining widespread support, and ruffl ing a few feathers


“SHOW ME THE EVIDENCE!” It is an exhortation far too rarely heard, let alone considered, in education. Every time I say it to teachers, I am reminded of the catchphrase made famous by the fi lm Jerry Maguire – “Show me the money!” The currency I am interested in of course is not cash, but hard research evidence. Yet in keeping with the fi lm’s central character, I am calling on a profession to challenge its long held beliefs and practices. For too long the benchmark for teaching has been set too low. We need to challenge teachers and ask how what they are doing in the classroom compares to the very best teaching approaches that are underpinned


The Education Endowment Foundation The EEF is an education fi rst in England. Set up by the Sutton Trust as the lead charity in partnership with Impetus, a venture philanthropy charity, it is funded by an endowment of £125 million from the Government. With extra income from endowment returns and fundraising, the aim is to spend £200 million over the next 15 years. Its mission is to improve the attainment of around 160,000 children (those on free school meals) in underperforming schools in England. What makes the EEF so distinctive and


exciting is its potential to develop lessons not only for the country’s poorest children,


The toolkit’s fi ndings have already ruffl ed a few feathers in the educational establishment – challenging some of the assumptions that small reductions in class sizes, for example, or employing teaching assistants are good ways of raising attainment


by research showing demonstrable impacts on the learning and attainment of children. For too long education debates have been preoccupied solely with how much money ends up in our schools. Of course money is important; but we must also ask what that money is actually spent on. We need to know what education bang we are getting for our buck. We want to know what works best. Such questions are particularly important for our poorest children. For as long as data has been collected, they have sat on the wrong side of a stark and persistent attainment gap. And as education becomes ever more important in determining prospects in later life, their more privileged peers have moved further ahead in the social mobility race. It is why “Show me the evidence” is one of the central rallying cries of the newly created Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).


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but the millions of children across all schools. The EEF will aspire to the highest scientifi c standards when evaluating the impact of the innovative projects proposed by schools, charities, universities, and other organisations to demonstrate what works best in boosting attainment. These will include randomised trials and quasi-experimental methods, up to now conspicuous only for their absence in the educational world. The EEF is “a gigantic do-tank” says the EEF’s chairman, Sir Peter Lampl. Overall, at least 10% of the EEF’s funds will support evaluation. Importantly, the EEF is an independent body, acting without fear or favour when evaluating what works best in schools. And with a 15 year horizon, it is in it for the long haul. It is open to any ideas that have the potential to boost attainment. Much to the delight of researchers,


Better: Evidence-based Education winter 2012


evaluations will be designed before the projects actually begin, not as an afterthought, as is too often the case. Ten leading research groups have been selected as EEF evaluators (including the Institute for Effective Education). These teams will bid to undertake the evaluations of EEF projects. Before the end of the year the fi rst wave of evaluations will start to be formulated for grants under consideration in the fi rst EEF funding round. The brief for researchers will be to measure as far as possible the quantitative impact of interventions, as well as their costs, and how well interventions are deployed in schools. Each evaluation will be decided on a


case-by-case basis. Projects will range from small pilot studies, to fully blown multi- million pound trials. Evaluations will adopt standardised tests for pupils to measure their attainment or, where available, the offi cial school results of children. And all the results will be made public. An over-arching review will compare the impacts of all the projects funded, and track pupils over a number of years, to gauge the long-term effects.


The pupil premium toolkit The ambitious EEF plans have been widely praised – and are part of an evidence- based movement gathering momentum in the UK. But the evidence-based approach is not without its detractors. They argue that complex research fi ndings will be cherry-picked by teachers to back their own prejudices; that project evaluations will capture only a partial refl ection of the reality of school life; that results averaged over entire school systems will produce crude approximations with little relevance for an individual classroom that is its own unique learning environment; and that it is unethical to offer some children an educational “treatment” and not others who form a control group for comparison.


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