Today, the EEF has published new evaluations of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of four teaching and learning approaches:
- Tips by Text, a programme that sends text messages to parents of four- and five-year-olds to promote parental engagement. This trial was funded as part of the Home Learning Environment Round, in partnership with the Department for Education and Leeds-based education charity SHINE.
- Learning Language and Loving It, training for early years practitioners to promote language and early literacy.
- FLASH Marking, a school-developed approach in which teachers give skills-based feedback rather than grades to GCSE English students.
- English Mastery, training for teachers to deliver a knowledge-rich English curriculum to 11 – 14-year-olds.
Each of these trials was significantly disrupted by the pandemic, and as a result, it was not possible to make robust estimates of their impact on pupil progress.
However, the implementation and process evaluations for these projects has been published today to provide useful messages for schools considering any of these approaches.
The EEF will re-trial Learning Language and Loving It and English Mastery as part of work being undertaken through the Department for Education’s Accelerator Fund, which aims to broaden schools’ access to evidence-informed programmes.
Also published today are the findings from a ‘nimble’ RCT run alongside the scale-up evaluation of Embedding Formative Assessment, a professional programme that aims to embed the use of formative assessment strategies across a school.
This ‘nimble’ trial tested whether testimonial-based or evidence-based marketing materials were more effective in encouraging schools to sign up for the programme. The independent evaluation led by the Behavioural Insights Team found no difference between the two approaches.