Education Endowment Foundation:ITT: Teacher retention (School Choices)

ITT: Teacher retention (School Choices)

Research on supporting teacher retention

The focus of this current ITT is to understand how different approaches in three key areas – flexible working, school leadership and climate and workload reduction – can support teacher retention, particularly in schools with high numbers of socio-economically disadvantaged pupils.

This round is designed to fund research projects that examine the impact of school choices on teacher retention outcomes. Research teams must propose research questions that can be answered through causal impact evaluation approaches, such as randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental designs (QEDs).

We have identified some priority preliminary research questions that we are particularly keen to fund, which are provided below, alongside some initial considerations for evaluation. We would expect applicants submitting proposals for these questions to further refine these questions during the scoping phase of their school choices evaluation (see ITT for more information).

A separate invitation to tender (ITT – see our Tenders page) focuses on understanding how different strategies and/​or incentives like flexible working featured in job advertisements can attract potential candidates.

Who should apply?

We encourage applications from research teams with experience of conducting impact and mixed-methods evaluations in education, particularly with a focus on the teacher workforce. We are interested in proposals from single research teams and/​or consortia with complementary expertise and where the consortium can demonstrate that they will work well together to ensure the quality and efficiency of the project. 

This call for proposals is open; researchers do not need to be part of EEF’s panel of evaluators. We accept applications from legally constituted organisations and not from individuals. The organisation does not have to be based in England, but if not based there, we would expect you to demonstrate the partnerships and knowledge required to work with English schools.

How to apply

Interested applicants should submit their EOIs by completing our application formby 17:00on Wednesday, 31 January 2024. Successful applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal. 

If you have any questions, please contact Guillermo Romero (guillermo.​romero@​eefoundation.​org.​uk).

If you wish to submit an EOI that addresses a research question that is not one of our priority questions (but still fits the overall theme of the round), we encourage you to contact us to discuss your idea before submitting.