The importance of randomised controlled trials in education

Published on: May 20, 2017

4 min read

I want to see — as I am sure do you — an education system that supports every single pupil to flourish, no matter who they are or where they come from. Yet, too often, we see similar pupils achieve very different results, even within the same schools. It is usually the poorest pupils — those who can’t afford the same out-of-school support that their better-off classmates can — who lose out. The stakes are too high for this to be acceptable any more. If we want to improve outcomes for all students, and increase professional independence, we have to support all teachers to become more evidence-informed. That means making good use of what is already known about effective practice and investing our energy into learning more. This may sound like stating the obvious, but it isn’t just a matter of observing what happens in good schools, labelling it ‘best practice’, and strong-arming everyone into doing it. Schools and classrooms are complex systems, and within them i

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This article was published in May 2017 and reflects the terminology and understanding of research and evidence in use at the time. Some terms and conclusions may no longer align with current standards. We encourage readers to approach the content with an understanding of this context.