View & Download Full Text
Working Out What Works: The Case of the Education Endowment Foundation in England - Triin Edovald, Camilla Nevill, 2021 (sagepub.com)
Article Information
Article first published online: May 7, 2020; Issue published: March 1, 2021
Received: October 22, 2019; Accepted: January 18, 2020
Author
Triin Edovald
The Education Endowment Foundation
Camilla Nevill
The Education Endowment Foundation
Abstract
Purpose: This article gives an overview of the successes and lessons learned to date of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), one of the leading organizations of the What Works movement.
Design/Approach/Methods: Starting with its history, this article covers salient components of the EEF’s unique journey including lessons learned and challenges in evidence generation.
Findings: The EEF has demonstrated that it is feasible to rapidly expand the use of school-based randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in a country context, set high standards for research independence, transparency, and design, and generate new evidence on what works. Challenges include the need to consider alternative designs to RCTs to answer a range of practice-relevant questions, how to best test interventions at scale, and how study findings are reported and interpreted.
Originality/Value: This article addresses some of the key components required for the success of What Works organizations globally.
Keywords
Education, evaluation, evidence, impact, randomized controlled trials, teaching