RS Network | Blog two | How do Randomised Control Trials work?

7 February, 2024 —
Blog

Blog two | How do Randomised Control Trials work?

EEF efficacy and effectiveness projects are usually evaluated through randomised controlled trial. We explore how they work.

Share on:

by Cornwall Research School
on the 7th February 2024

In blog one of our series on EEF projects we looked at the evidence generation work of the EEF. Here in blog two, we will explore how randomised control trials (RCTs) work.

John Rodgers

Director of Cornwall Research School

John has been a teacher for 24 years, the last 19 in Cornwall. He currently works as an Assistant Principal at Mounts Bay Academy, Penzance. He is also Content Lead for Secondary Literacy for RS Network. Click here to read more.

Luca Owenbridge

Deputy Director of Cornwall Research School

Luca Owenbridge is History and Maths teacher based in Penzance, Cornwall. He came to teaching after working as a Policy Analyst for the Department for Education in London. Click here to read more.

🎧 Why not listen to our EEF Projects blogs on Podbean 🎧

The EEF efficacy and effectiveness projects are usually evaluated through a randomised controlled trial. This means that if you sign up, you’re randomly assigned to one of two groups:

•The ‘delivery’ group, who implement the approach being tested.
• The control group, where practice continues as normal.

This is the best way to find out the impact of the approach being tested.

“RCTs provide a robust way of comparing outcomes between a random group of schools that are selected to implement a certain practice and another random group of schools that do not implement the practice.”

Settings assigned to the control group get thank you payments for taking part, as they’re crucial for allowing the evaluators to make a good estimate of the impact of the approach being tested.

Sometimes the trial is designed slightly differently, for example randomisation might be at the pupil or class level within your setting. This should all be clear in the information about individual projects.

In her blog on RCTs, Camilla Nevill says, “RCTs are currently the optimal and least-biased method for estimating, on average, whether something works, when done well. Those last three words are important. Just because a study is an RCT, does not automatically mean it is‘gold standard’. In fact, there is a continuum from the truly outstanding to the totally rubbish. This is one of the reasons why the EEF has set the highest standards for transparency, pre-specification, and reporting, and developed our padlock rating system to help time-poor practitioners understand how much to trust a result.

When combined with information on cost and implementation, RCTs provide very powerful information for decision makers (in our case senior leaders in schools and other settings) on the‘best bets’ for spending their budgets.”¹

For answers to FAQs about the evaluation of EEF projects visit Evaluation FAQs | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)

To find out more about the projects that the EEF are currently funding visit the EEF website here Projects | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)

To explore projects that are currently recruiting in your area, visit Take part in an EEF project | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)

This was blog 2 of 6 in our series exploring EEF projects.