Language and Cognition Seminar - Dr Matthew Inglis

What do we learn from large-scale RCTs in education?

There are a growing number of large-scale randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in education. Since 2011 the Education Endowment Foundation (funded by the UK government) has spent £110m conducting such trials. Considering their expense, it is important to reflect on what we’ve learned from this investment. In this talk I will report a study which assessed the magnitude and precision of effects found in all large-scale educational RCTs commissioned by the Education Endowment Foundation and its U.S.-based equivalent, the National Center for Educational Evaluation and Regional Assistance (totalling 141 RCTs; 1,222,024 students). The mean standardised effect size from these trials was remarkably small, and the observed effects typically sat within relatively large confidence intervals. Furthermore, a Bayesian analysis indicated that a large proportion of the EEF's and NCEE's trials were uninformative. I conclude by discussing what might be going wrong with education research, and what methodological reforms might help.