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RISE: Research-leads Improving Students Education

An Education Endowment Foundation (EEF)
Randomised Controlled Trial Project
FAQs
What is a 'Randomised Controlled Trial' (RCT)?
This trial involves forty secondary schools. Once selected, the forty schools will be chosen by lottery
to be either a control school or a treatment school hence the random nature of the trial. There will
be twenty of each. The twenty treatment schools will receive a package of intervention and support
over two years; the control schools will not receive the intervention, but are a crucially important
element of the trial and will receive a financial payment for taking part in the evaluation.

Why should our school be involved in this project?
In short, we think that being part of the project will help improve the outcomes, and therefore the
life chances, of students in your school.

We believe that the evidence gained from this trial could have a far-reaching impact on the future
of education in England as no other similar RCT has ever been undertaken.

A central focus of the project is for each treatment school to develop a highly trained Research-lead
(RL) to support the English and mathematics departments. The RLs will be trained by Huntington
School and Durham University to provide research evidence to help English and mathematics
departments select the most effective teaching & learning strategies to improve GCSE results in
2015-2017. In a time of turbulent curriculum change, it would allow for greater support for teachers
in these core subjects which are under the greatest scrutiny.

What are EEF Research Partner Schools?
The EEF is designating all schools involved in EEF projects as EEF Research Partner Schools. The EEF
will write to all schools at the start of the project thanking them for their contribution to the
building the evidence base and narrowing the attainment gap. We will also explain the importance
of participating in research and the additional benefits to being an EEF Research Partner School,
which include:
A regular newsletter updating schools on the latest EEF projects and evidence;
Access to EEF networking and knowledge events
Permission to use the EEFs logo on their website; and
A certificate showing that the school is an EEF Research Partner School.
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What is the role of a Research-lead?
A Research-lead is effectively a new role in the school leadership structure. The RL must have a role
on the Senior Leadership Team in treatment schools. We think this is essential as the project is
about how research evidence can inform school improvement plans, so the RL needs to have a focal
role, supported by the Headteacher, in enhancing those school improvement plans with knowledge
of the best of research evidence.

The RL will work directly with the English and mathematics departments to source, apply and
evaluate the most effective teaching & learning strategies and raising attainment interventions in
those core subject areas at GCSE. From September 2015 the RL will work with the English and
mathematics subject leaders and with teachers in those two departments in evaluating data and
implementing specific strategies for improvement and intervention.

The RL would also have a secondary role in promoting the use of research evidence throughout the
school, such as in whole school CPD sessions; supporting staff in sourcing and evaluating research
etc.

How do the students in my school benefit from involvement in this project?
The project will be comprehensively and independently evaluated by Meg Wiggins, the Director of
the evaluation from the Institute of Education (IoE). The key aim of the RL project is to support an
improvement in outcomes for GCSE students in English and mathematics at the treatment schools.
Does research evidence help connect the golden thread from school improvements plans to student
outcomes? We will train the RL to utilise the EEF School Improvement Cycle to improve school
improvement plans and teaching and learning interventions. The cycle is outlined below:


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Each treatment school will become part of the RISE network. They will have access to our website,
which will provide advice and interactive support regarding all facets of research evidence. We will
also establish more local networks to support and share CPD and other whole school initiatives to
support school improvement. We will hold annual conferences in 2016 and 2017 for treatment
schools in the project, which will include sharing of best practice and expert research and its
applications.

How will they be trained to gain expertise in using research for school improvement?
The RLs will undergo an intensive programme of training co-created by Professor Rob Coe, from
Durham University and their Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, and Alex Quigley, Director of
Learning and Research at Huntington School.

Each RL will attend six full day workshops beginning in January 2015 and finishing in July 2015.
These sessions will ensure that RLs are trained to a high standard in evaluating and applying
research evidence successfully using the EEF School Improvement Cycle. In between the formal
sessions, RLs will continue a programme of training, including research related tasks to enhance
their knowledge and understanding.

Two sessions of full day workshop training will be undertaken in September of 2015 to evaluate
exam data and to begin planning for evidence-led interventions in English and mathematics with
expert support. Thereafter, the Research-lead will meet termly and work in networks to support
one another, coordinated and supported through the Huntington School Hub. There will be the
opportunity for regular support and networking opportunities to aid school improvement in each
treatment school involved in the project.

How many teachers in school will the Research-lead be working with?
Primarily, the RL will be working with the English and mathematics departments. In each treatment
school, there may be improvement priorities that see the RL work with other teachers or work in
delivering whole school CPD. The Director and the Assistant Director of the project will have subject
specific expertise in English and mathematics respectively and CEM will provide further support for
school improvement in these areas, but the support given from treatment school RLs to colleagues
in their schools need not be exclusively for English and mathematics teachers.

How much will it cost financially for the school to be involved in the project?
There is a cost to each of the twenty actively participating treatment schools of 2,500 p.a. for two
years. That payment secures a place on the trial, access to the training programme & the protected
project website, and on-going support from Huntington School and CEM over the lifespan of the
trial. However, we recognise that time is required to be an effective RL. Each of the twenty
treatment schools will receive two instalments of 5,000 to ensure that the RL has time to complete
the role, as well as helping towards funding cover costs for any training sessions. We will pay
reasonable travel costs for the training sessions in addition to the two instalments of 5,000.
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We believe that the quality of training and the access to outstanding support and research evidence
will prove invaluable to the treatment schools involved in the project. We see the prospective
impact of training a member of the Senior Leadership Team to help drive school improvement
priorities is such that the project will prove of great value to every treatment school and its
students.

What happens if the Research-lead gets a job at another school?
We anticipate that there may be some staff 'turbulence' amongst the Research-leads (and even
Headteachers) in the treatment schools during the course of the project. As part of the commitment
to the project each school will complete a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) upon
joining the project. Part of that MoU would be an explicit expectation that the school would assign
another Senior Leader to the role of RL. They would be supported and trained appropriately.

Whats in this RCT for the control schools?
The twenty control schools will form an integral, and crucial, element of the trial because we can
only begin to judge whether the RLs have worked in the treatment schools by comparing them with
the outcomes in the control schools. Control school will not receive the treatment of the Research-
lead programme, nor will they be able to have access to the project. They will agree to share
national data and undertake three short staff questionnaires during the life of the project. Control
schools will be compensated financially with 500 at the commencement of the trial and 1,000
upon completion of the trial. We will keep in touch with the control schools over the life of the
project in order to emphasise the importance of their role. Should the RCT provide good evidence
that the Research-lead model works, there may well be the opportunity for control schools to
participate in the scaling up of the strategy beginning in May 2018.

How and when are schools selected?
The recruitment process is national and selection will be made at random, but there will be a
systematic preference for state maintained secondary schools in England. A lottery will select the
successful forty schools to enter the trial. A further lottery will be undertaken to select the
treatment and control schools.

What is the timeline for the project?
Now Oct 2014: Huntington School invites declarations of interest and from the
applications recruits forty schools: twenty treatment schools and twenty control schools
drawn by lottery.

Nov 2014: Schools involved in the project will be notified whether they have been successful
in being part of the project. Then twenty treatment schools will be identified. They will
assign the role of Research-lead to a member of their Senior Leadership Team. The twenty
control schools will be financially rewarded for their involvement and will play an important
part in the trial.
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Jan Oct 2015: Research-leads to undertake a bespoke training programme (eight intensive
sessions) led by the project lead Alex Quigley from Huntington School and leading
educational researcher Professor Rob Coe from Durhams Centre for Evaluation and
Monitoring, based around the EEF School Improvement Cycle.

Oct Nov 2015: Each treatment school will select the best research led priorities for school
improvement, focused upon student attainment in English and mathematics at GCSE.
Research-leads will support those core departments in improving student outcomes.

Nov 2015 July 2016: Year 1 of the core intervention. GCSE data collection. Research-leads
will be engaged in a network of cutting-edge schools looking to implement the best of
research, whilst supporting their core subject areas and undertaking well supported, high
quality CPD.

July 2016 Nov 2017: Year 2 of the core intervention. GCSE data collection and overall
evaluation. Schools will once more define their research led priorities and use the EEF School
improvement Cycle to help drive improvement for student outcomes in English and
mathematics at GCSE.

Nov 2017 March 2018: The IoE evaluate the impact of RLs in treatment schools compared
to control schools.

April 2018: Final report on the RCT published.

Will taking part in the project mean extra work for schools that participate?
Researchers will try and ensure that the burden and pressure on all participating schools, both
treatment and control is kept to a minimum. We shall need all participating schools to provide the
Unique Pupil Numbers to us and Headteachers will need to consent to the evaluators linking project
data to the National Pupil Database (NPD).

We shall also need all schools to distribute consent forms to parents/carers at the beginning of the
project. These forms ensure that responses get to the research team and encourage parents to
bring any queries to the research director.

How can teachers help us to ensure that we have the best chance of finding out if the project is
effective or not?
The evaluation will be most useful if Research-leads deliver the project in a way that is faithful to its
original design. By doing this, we will be able to evaluate the approach in the way it was intended
across all treatment schools. Also if we found the approach was effective it would be possible to
replicate it.

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If Research-leads modify the project in practice, researchers will not be able to assess easily why it
has or has not worked. It may have worked because of something unintended that we are not
aware of or it may not have worked because it was not delivered as intended.

Having said this, we are keen to collect evidence about how our Research-lead training is
implemented by the Research-leads as part of the evaluation of actually what happens over the two
years of the trial. We might find that there are certain barriers which prevent the Research-leads
from operating according to how they have been trained and that those barriers are surmountable;
such findings are invaluable to this RCT.

How will we communicate with parents of children involved in the project?
Before the trial begins we will send information to all schools about the evaluation for distribution
to parents. This will ask them for opt-out consent to the testing and provision of NPD data. We shall
reassure parents that children in control schools will be educated in English and mathematics
classes in the exactly the same way as they would have done if the schools were not involved in the
trial.

Who will guarantee the confidentiality of the data collected from schools?
We will follow ethical and legal practice and all data collected in the course of the evaluation will be
handled in confidence. Questionnaires, interview recordings and notes will be anonymised (with
numbered codes, not names) and stored securely at the Social Science Research Unit, Institute of
Education. Childrens test scores will be treated with the strictest confidence. Meg Wiggins, the
Director of the evaluation, will be responsible for the secure storage of this data. Only members of
the research team will have access to it. After 5 years, all stored data will be shredded and disposed
of securely and digital interview data will be deleted. No individual schools or pupils will be
identified through the evaluation.

Who is in the project team?
The project will be delivered by Professor Rob Coe, from Durham University and their Centre for
Evaluation and Monitoring, and Alex Quigley, Director of Learning and Research at Huntington
School. Meg Wiggins, the Director of the evaluation, works at the Institute of Education. There will
be other expert external contributors to the training programme for Research-leads.

What will happen to the results of the project?
The results of the project will be published by the Education Endowment Foundation on their
website (http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/) and by the Institute of Education
(www.ioe.ac.uk).

For further details and to declare an interest please contact Alex Quigley:
E: aj.quigley@huntington-ed.org.uk; Tel: 01904 752100; @HuntingEnglish