2. What can Social Science Contribute to Educational Policy? Peter Tymms Durham UK

3. Overview Effectiveness of policies & cost How can research help Where the action lies Two interventions What is needed

5. Impact of UK Policy Initiatives: One example

6. KS2 Percent With Level 4+

7. Independent data from: Thirteen independent studies Two thirds of a million assessments

8. What really happened

9. Summary Reading improvements were “largely illusory” Maths improvements were modest

10. Why the issue is important Cost: £500,0000 on the NLS “Large scale reform is not only possible but can be achieved quickly” Michael Barber Education Week 15/11/00 National Audit Office in Modern Policy Took the NLS to draw lessons about successful policy making.

11. The pendulum swings and.. History is littered with educational initiatives that have had no impact. USA: Billions of dollars have been spent on reading with no impact.

12. How can research help? Providing an overview –Low level generalisations (Scriven) For practitioners For policy makers Providing feedback through –Monitoring –Evaluation Researching –What works –NB Unit of Investigation

13. What is most important? For the progress and attitudes of students –The district –The school –The principal –The teacher

14. The Newcastle Commission A political promise

15. Data Sources Several national datasets including –ASPECTS, PIPS, MidYIS & YELLIS –plus KS1, KS2, KS3 & GCSE Looked a value-added using 3 level multilevel models

16. English Official Assessments A level GCSE End of KS3 End of KS2 End of KS1 FSP ALIS YELLIS MIDYIS PIPS ASPECTS

23. Learning

24. Two example of research into what works But what should the unit of investigation be?

25. First Intervention Teachers rate pupils aged 5 on their ADHD symptoms. High scoring pupils fall behind for years to come

26. Interventions Randomly assign to schools IdentificationNo Identification Booklet No Booklet

27. Interventions Randomly assigned to LEAs NothingInformation packs Conference & packs

28. Numbers 24 Authorities 2040 schools 60,000 pupils Over 2 years

29. Results LEA Interventions –No impact on any of the outcome measures For booklet –Higher Y2 reading scores across all pupils –Better behaviour for pupils with ADHD characteristics –More positive teachers Identification –No impact Interaction –Negative and puzzling

30. Second Intervention: Peer Tutoring

31. We know that.. Peer Learning enhances learning But Can a whole Authority change?

32. Compare Fife-in-the-future with Fife-in-the-past Cross-age with same-age Separate and mixed approaches? Intensive and selective approaches? And The schools have agreed to be randomly assigned to interventions.

33. Where do we go? Get and retain good teachers Use the methods of science to –Monitor –Evaluate –Investigate using RCTs at the school & LEA levels And in the future –Use diagnostic computer adaptive assessments –Create simulations –Reforms as experiments (Campbell)