This case describes a current evaluation of an educational intervention to help disadvantaged children catch up in literacy at around the time they transfer to their senior school. The evaluation is based on a randomised controlled trial design, which the case explains is the most appropriate for testing or establishing a causal claim. The case…

Research Learning Communities (RLC) was an intervention that aimed to improve teaching quality and learning outcomes by raising teachers' awareness, understanding, and use of educational research in their teaching practice. Two Evidence Champion teachers from each school attended four RLC workshops with peers from up to four other schools.…

Purpose: The past decade has seen considerable debate about how to best evaluate the efficacy of educational improvement initiatives, and members of the educational leadership research community have entered the debate with great energy. Throughout this debate, the use of randomized experiments has been a particularly contentious subject. This…