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Re: If Bill Gates (USA) and Nick Gibb (England) really want to help education

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 8:12 pm
by Debbie_Hepplewhite
Now here's a turn-up for the books, David Brown HMI, has just tweeted this comment which is very pertinent to this thread - so why is the EEF ploughing millions of pounds into the area?

@Jack_Marwood @HarfordSean In the north east 91% of primary schools are good or outstanding #GoodNewsUpNorth ;-).

Here are the statistics for the schools in the north east provided via the EEF site:


https://educationendowmentfoundation.or ... y-campaign

Re: If Bill Gates (USA) and Nick Gibb (England) really want to help education

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 3:59 pm
by Debbie_Hepplewhite
This is an interesting development by the Education Endowment Foundation regarding an investigation into 'popular programmes in schools' in England.

https://educationendowmentfoundation.or ... n-schools/

I've highlighted the paragraph below with 'red':
Review of popular programmes in schools

Background

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) intends to commission a review of the programmes that are used most widely by schools to increase pupils’ attainment.

This review of current practices within schools would help inform future EEF grant making as we seek to test the impact of popular programmes so that we can provide effective guidance for schools when making decisions on which programmes to purchase.

Review Purpose

The purpose of the review is to identify programmes that are used widely in schools but have not yet been trialled by the EEF. The aim of these programmes should be predominantly on academic attainment. We recognise, however, that there are many different factors which impact on teaching and learning and are interested in programmes that schools are using that aim to improve both cognitive and non-cognitive skills, including those that extend beyond literacy and numeracy.

The EEF currently makes its funding decisions through accepting applications from schools, universities, charities and other organisations and evaluating those with the most promising evidence. There is, however, a risk that many organisations, particularly commercial ones do not apply to the EEF and therefore their programmes are never evaluated.

We would like to identify

Which programmes are used most widely in schools
What the programmes seek to improve (attainment in English? Maths?)
If there is a cost to schools for the programme/what it is
Briefly, if any evaluations of the programme have been conducted

Method

We are open to different approaches to identifying these projects. We would expect proposals that use surveys to clearly demonstrate an ability to reach a significant number of decision makers in schools.

Appointment Process

If you would like to be considered to undertake the review, please send a brief outline describing your proposed approach by 5pm on 24th March. Please include an overview of your relevant skills and experience, and an estimated budget, which should be between £10,000 and £20,000. Proposals should be no more than 1,000 words.

We will initially shortlist proposals and then have conversations with the shortlisted candidates to further assess their expertise and to discuss their approach to the review.

We will finalise the specification with the successful team.

If you have any questions, please contact Jonathan Kay: jonathan.kay@eefoundation.org.uk
This is not something that a specific programme author should undertake but programme authors/trainers/consultants could inform a review process by helping people to understand whether schools are using the programmes as guided/trained or simply as dip-in resources.

This is an important difference.

Re: If Bill Gates (USA) and Nick Gibb (England) really want to help education

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 10:54 pm
by Debbie_Hepplewhite
HeatherF on:
'Phonics - is there much evidence?'
https://heatherfblog.wordpress.com/2014 ... -evidence/

Further, HeatherF on:
The EEF - is this the best we can do?
https://heatherfblog.wordpress.com/2016 ... we-can-do/

Re: If Bill Gates (USA) and Nick Gibb (England) really want to help education

Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 3:14 pm
by Debbie_Hepplewhite
Please note this state of affairs:
The EEF currently makes its funding decisions through accepting applications from schools, universities, charities and other organisations and evaluating those with the most promising evidence. There is, however, a risk that many organisations, particularly commercial ones do not apply to the EEF and therefore their programmes are never evaluated.
But the EEF has precluded 'commercial' organisations from applying, see here:
Who can apply to the EEF for funding?

Funding from the EEF is available to any not-for-profit organisation: mainstream primary and secondary schools, charities, local authorities, academy chains, universities, social enterprises and community interest companies.

For-profit companies may be involved as partners with, or suppliers to, the main not-for-profit applicant. In such cases, the EEF will need to ensure that our funding is being used for public benefit and meets our objectives.

Please note that the EEF can only fund projects for the benefit of pupils and schools in England, including early years settings. We are, however, very open to innovative ideas from overseas that are applicable to schools in England.
This is an ironic state of affairs - people have to earn money to 'live' unless they are already rich and self-sufficient. Do we want to find out what works best for the benefit of children or not? Should the criteria be based on organisations' structures - or whether or not they have a programme which is worthy of investigating fully?

Re: If Bill Gates (USA) and Nick Gibb (England) really want to help education

Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 7:14 pm
by Dick Schutz
There are indeed many ironies in the politics, economics, and sociology of educational research, but there is little likelihood that they will be sorted out, let alone resolved. in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the opportunity for Natural Experiments in reading instruction that compare the results of programs/architectures unobtrusively is receiving no attention. If Bill Gates (USA) and Nick Gibb (England) really want to help education . . .

Re: If Bill Gates (USA) and Nick Gibb (England) really want to help education

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2016 12:06 am
by Debbie_Hepplewhite
You're right, Dick - and wouldn't it be interesting if teachers in America used England's Year One Phonics Screening Check for a start!

That would give an indication of the general effectiveness of infant reading instruction in two English-speaking countries - we'd soon get a picture.

Re: If Bill Gates (USA) and Nick Gibb (England) really want to help education

Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2020 2:19 pm
by Debbie_Hepplewhite
As I write this post, it is now 28th December 2020.

IFERI committee member Susan Godsland has just flagged up this thread via Twitter our prediction that phonics results in England would 'stall' between 80% and 85% until there was a greater understanding of exactly how phonics and reading instruction is being taught in England's schools.

Susan and I made this prediction 5+ years ago and, sure enough, the results in England have stalled at 82% reaching or exceeding the benchmark of 32 out of 40 words read correctly (or plausibly in the case of the 20 nonsense words) for several years.

In the meantime, we have pandemic and the Government in England have given many millions of pounds to the Education Endowment Foundation for the 'National Tutoring Programme' in light of mainstream education being disrupted by the pandemic.

The Government has also provided electronic links to various websites to support teachers and parents/carers for educational purposes.

A number of us in England, however, are horrified that the Goverment links for literacy special needs lead to the Education Endowment Foundation site - and that the EEF do not point to any of the systematic synthetic phonics programmes that have been scrutinised by the Department for Education to warrant being 'DfE validated'.

I have subsequently written a post about this via 'The Naked Emperor' blog, see here:
The Education Endowment Foundation is actively undermining the Government in England and here is an evidence trail to show this
https://debbiehepplewhite.com/the-educa ... show-this/