The Pupil PremiumStrategies to Improve Achievement that Work?

Lee Elliot Major and Robbie Coleman8th July 2013

lee.elliotmajor@suttontrust.comrobbie.coleman@eefoundation.org.uk

Two charities, one aim

• The Sutton Trust was founded in 1997 by Sir Peter Lampl. It is dedicated to improving social mobility through education.

• In 2011 the Sutton Trust as lead charity in partnership with Impetus launched the Education Endowment Foundation, funded by a Department for Education grant of £125m. The EEF is an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement.

Complementary approaches

EEF Sutton Trust

Pupils eligible for free school meals Low and middle income students

5-16 year olds 0-18 year olds

Funds and evaluates programmes and approaches

Runs own programmes and conducts research and policy work

Attainment-focused Aspirations and progression

Core attainment at 11 and 16Stretching able students; mobility at the

top end

Linking research and practice – Sutton-EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit

Supporting schools to close the gap in three ways

• Ensuring that schools have access to high-quality, independent evidence, as a starting point for decision-making and innovation.

• Helping schools evaluate the impact of strategies to close the gap with guidance, advice and case studies.

• Building the evidence of what works to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils in schools through rigorously evaluated large scale projects.

1. Teaching and Learning Toolkit

• The Toolkit is an accessible, independent summary of educational research.

• Practice focused: aims to help schools make informed decisions and narrow the gap.

• Based on meta-analyses conductedby Durham University.

Toolkit overview:A starting point for decision making

Example: Approach summary

References

Scenario: Spending the Pupil Premium

• A large secondary school receives £250,000 from the Pupil Premium in 2012-13.

• How should the school decide to use this money?• Should the school spend the money on professional

development to improve the quality of feedback pupils receive, or small group tuition, or class size reduction?

The Toolkit doesn’t tell you what to do, but we hope that it will help teachers and schools make more informed decisions.

Caution!

Myth 1: Research provides a simple list of

dos and don’ts.

Reducing Class Size

Average cost-effectiveness

High Impact

Teaching AssistantsLow

Impact

Low cost

High cost

Peer tutoring

One to one

Small group tuition

Feedback

Aspiration interventions

Parental involvement

Block scheduling

2. Supporting “DIY evaluation”

• Evaluating the impact of the decisions you make is very important. We’ve published a DIY Evaluation Guide with Durham University, which could help.

Applying evidence in practice

External evidence summarised in the Toolkit can be used to inform choices.

Step 2: Identifying possible solutions

Evaluate the impact of your decisions and identify potential improvements for the future.

Step 4: Did it work?

Mobilise the knowledge and use the findings to inform the work of the school to grow or stop

the intervention.

Step 5: Securing and spreading change

Applying the ingredients of effective implementation.

Step 3: Giving the idea the best chance of success

Identify school priorities using internal data and professional judgement.

Step 1: What do you want to achieve?

Caution!

Myth 2: There are proven methods which work every

time, in every context.

3. Funding rigorous evaluations

• So far, the EEF has funded 56 projects working with 1,800 schools and 300,000 pupils,

building on the 5,500 studies in the Toolkit.

Synthesise existing

evidence

Make grants

Evaluate projects

Caution!

Myth 3: We already know enough about what works, we just have to go

and do it.

Reflections

• Evidence can help you capturing the benefits of current and new spending.

• But, there are no off the shelf solutions; context, implementation and evaluation matters.

• Research can support teachers to make better decisions, but only in tandem with professional judgment and consideration.