Evaluation

A central aim of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is to find out what works to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils in schools in England. To achieve this, all EEF projects will be rigorously evaluated by independent experts in educational research. These evaluations will be funded by the EEF.

The aim of our evaluations is to improve knowledge and extend the evidence-base on what works in order to raise attainment. The impact of projects on attainment will be evaluated, where possible, using randomised controlled trials, with a linked process evaluation to understand the elements of successful delivery. The size of evaluation, and therefore the number of schools or projects that we would require grantees to work with, will be determined by what we already know or whether there is a need to either pilot a new approach or demonstrate that an intervention can work at scale.

We want to share our research about what works to raise the educational attainment of disadvantaged pupils. Our Teaching and Learning Toolkit provides guidance for teachers and schools on how best improve the attainment of their pupils by summarising educational research from the United Kingdom and around the world. As projects progress, we will integrate the results of our evaluations into the summary of evidence in the Toolkit.

Our website will feature evaluation reports and examples of approaches that work. We want to make our approach to evaluation rigorous and transparent. You can read about our evaluation approach here and our initial research can be accessed through the document library.