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What can Social Science Contribute to Educational
Policy?
Peter Tymms
Durham
UK
Overview
• Effectiveness of policies & cost
• How can research help
• Where the action lies
• Two interventions
• What is needed
Impact of UK Policy Initiatives: One example
40
50
60
70
80
90
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Perc
ent l
evel
4 and
abov
e
KS2 maths
KS2 English
2000
KS2 Percent With Level 4+
Independent data from:
• Thirteen independent studies
• Two thirds of a million assessments
40
50
60
70
80
9019
95
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
MathsEnglish
What really happened
Summary
• Reading improvements were “largely illusory”
• Maths improvements were modest
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.
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.
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
What is most important?
• For the progress and attitudes of students – The district– The school– The principal – The teacher
The Newcastle Commission
A political promise
Data Sources
• Several national datasets including
– ASPECTS, PIPS, MidYIS & YELLIS – plus KS1, KS2, KS3 & GCSE
• Looked a value-added using 3 level multilevel models
English Official Assessments
• A level
• GCSE
• End of KS3
• End of KS2
• End of KS1
• FSP
ALIS
YELLIS
MIDYIS
PIPS
ASPECTS
Pupil raw Pupil value-added
School raw
School value added
LEA raw LEA value added
-3.00
-2.00
-1.00
0.00
1.00
2.00
Pupil raw Pupil value-added
School raw
School value added
LEA raw LEA value added
-3.00
-2.00
-1.00
0.00
1.00
2.00
Pupil raw Pupil value-added
School raw
School value added
LEA raw LEA value added
-3.00
-2.00
-1.00
0.00
1.00
2.00
Pupil raw Pupil value-added
School raw
School value added
LEA raw LEA value added
-3.00
-2.00
-1.00
0.00
1.00
2.00
Pupil raw Pupil value-added
School raw
School value added
LEA raw LEA value added
-3.00
-2.00
-1.00
0.00
1.00
2.00
Pupil raw Pupil value-added
School raw
School value added
LEA raw LEA value added
-3.00
-2.00
-1.00
0.00
1.00
2.00
Learning
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
District School Principal Teacher
Two example of research into what works
But what should the unit of investigation be?
First Intervention
• Teachers rate pupils aged 5 on their ADHD symptoms.
• High scoring pupils fall behind for years to come
Interventions
• Randomly assign to schools
Identification No Identification
Booklet
No Booklet
Interventions
• Randomly assigned to LEAs
Nothing Information packs
Conference & packs
Numbers
• 24 Authorities
• 2040 schools
• 60,000 pupils
• Over 2 years
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
Second Intervention: Peer Tutoring
We know that ..
Peer Learning enhances learning
But
Can a whole Authority change?
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.
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)