We’re currently looking for post-16 settings in England to take part in EEF-funded projects. These projects are education approaches or programmes, based on evidence, that need further testing within college settings. Details of the exact programmes we are currently recruiting for can be found here: Get Further’s GCSE Resit Tuition Programme and Can-Do Maths.
What are the benefits of taking part?
Deliver promising approaches in your setting at a heavily subsidised rate
Most of the programmes we evaluate would normally come with a delivery cost to settings. However, if you sign up for an EEF-funded project, we pay most of the delivery costs (we might ask you to contribute a small amount). You might also get a thank you payment for taking part in evaluation activities, making this a budget-friendly way to explore new approaches.
Support for GCSE re-sit learners
The programmes we’re currently recruiting for are specifically designed to support students re-sitting their GCSE exams.
Access professional development for your staff
Most of our programmes involve high-quality professional development and support resources, so taking part can support your staff and setting’s ongoing improvement.
Contribute to the post-16 evidence base and support your colleagues to improve teaching and learning
By taking part, your setting contributes to a growing body of research on what works best for learners aged 16 – 19. To date, over 200 post-16 settings in England have taken part in an EEF-funded project. Every one of them has made a valuable and long-term contribution to the education evidence base. This research supports improvements not just locally, but across the entire post-16 sector, improving teaching and learning through better use of evidence.
The feedback gathered during the evaluation process shows what works and what doesn’t, enabling your setting to make data-informed decisions and refine your approach to teaching and learning based on rigorous evidence.
Middlesborough College signed up for our Maths Mastery trial, focusing on supporting GCSE re-sit learners. Here’s what they had to say:
What are the different types of EEF project?
- Can-Do Maths is a pilot project.
- Get Further’s GCSE Resit Tuition Programme is an efficacy trial.
How do we run our funded projects?
We fund projects at different stages of their development. In our Innovation, Development and Pilot projects, all settings deliver the approach or programme and take part in some evaluation activity. Our efficacy and effectiveness projects are usually evaluated through a randomised controlled trial. This means that if you sign up, you’re randomly assigned to one of two groups: the ‘delivery’ group, who implement the approach or programme being tested; or the ‘control’ group, where practice continues as normal. This is the best way to find out the impact of the approach being tested.Settings assigned to the control group get thank you payments for taking part, as they’re crucial for allowing the evaluators to make a good estimate of the impact of the approach being tested.
Settings assigned to the control group get thank you payments for taking part, as they’re crucial for allowing the evaluators to make a good estimate of the impact of the approach being tested.
Sometimes the trial is designed slightly differently, for example randomisation might be at the learner or class level within your setting. This should all be clear in the information about individual projects.
How can you decide which project to take part in?
There are a few things you could consider when thinking about which EEF project to register for.
- Does this approach or programme support a particular objective in my setting?
- Are we able to facilitate ensuring required staff have the time and capacity to fully engage in this approach and it’s evaluation?
- Are we willing to take part in a trial and potentially be part of the control group?
What happens after you register?
When you’ve found the project you’d like to take part in, you can submit your details through the project page on the EEF website. The delivery team will get in touch with you directly to discuss the next steps and answer any questions you have about signing up to the project and delivering the programme.
Registering doesn’t commit you to taking part, and you can express an interest in more than one EEF project at any one time, although we encourage you to consider capacity. We wouldn’t allow a college to sign up to two projects that are delivered to the same learners in the same subject, however, as that can impact our ability to assess the impact of each project.
If you want to play a crucial role in building the evidence base for what works in post-16 education, sign up now!