Since the 1990s, there have been repeated calls for the systematic use of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to inform educational decision-making. The advent of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) -- described as England's What Works Centre for Education -- in 2011 has made this a reality in England: by 2020, over a third of English schools…

We report the results of a preregistered, cluster randomized controlled trial of a mathematics learning intervention known as interleaved practice. Whereas most mathematics assignments consist of a block of problems devoted to the same skill or concept, an interleaved assignment is arranged so that no 2 consecutive problems require the same…

In a randomized controlled trial of a teacher data-use intervention, the Linking Study tested the impacts of a cyclical and collaborative process that linked teachers' data on instructional practice with data on their students' learning. This article describes the theory of the intervention and its roots in the literature as a backdrop for an…

We report the results of a pre-registered, cluster randomized controlled trial of a mathematics learning intervention known as interleaved practice. Whereas most mathematics assignments consist of a block of problems devoted to the same skill or concept, an interleaved assignment is arranged so that no two consecutive problems require the same…

This article reports the results of a randomized control trial of a semester-long intervention designed to promote ninth-grade science students' use of text-based investigation to create explanatory models of biological phenomena. The main research question was whether the student participants in the intervention outperformed the students in the…

In a common approach for scaling up effective educational practice, schools adopt evidence-based programs to be implemented with fidelity. An alternative approach assumes that programs should be adapted to local contexts. In this randomized trial of a reading intervention, we study a scaffolded sequence of implementation in which schools first…

Research has shown that teacher effectiveness is the most important school-based factor that influences student outcomes, including student achievement. Studies have also shown that there is substantial variation in teacher effectiveness, such that some teachers improve student outcomes at a much faster rate than others. The strong influence of…

The purpose of this article was to summarize results from 5 randomized control trials assessing the effects of intervention to improve the fraction performance of 4th-grade students at-risk for difficulty in learning about fractions. We begin by explaining the importance of competence with fractions and why an instructional focus on fractions…

American Institutes for Research (AIR) is conducting an impact evaluation of The United Nations Children's Emergency Fund's (UNICEF's) teacher-training program and reinforcing text messages that aim to provide meaningful knowledge regarding the transformative potential of positive gender socialization in education for peace building in the region…

Restorative practices in schools lack rigorous evaluation studies. As an example of rigorous school-based research, this article describes the first randomized control trial of restorative practices to date, the Study of Restorative Practices. It is a 5-year, cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the Restorative Practices Intervention (RPI)…

Recognizing that standardized instructional treatments may not be equally effective across contexts, a growing number of scholars are arguing that the strategy of adopting packaged programs and striving to implement them faithfully is neither realistic nor desirable. An alternative view is that scaling up educational treatments requires balancing…

Challenge the Gap (CtG) is a school collaboration programme designed by Challenge Partners that aims to break the link between disadvantage and attainment. The main components of CtG are: (1) after-school workshops drawing on published research and evidenced practice; (2) focused in-school interventions with a selected cohort of disadvantaged…

A wealth of research, primarily in high income countries, has accumulated in recent years evaluating teacher effectiveness and the processes through which teachers' performance and job satisfaction can be improved (e.g., Pianta, Mashburn, Downer, Hamre & Justice, 2008; Ross, 1992; 1995). Much less is known about how these processes operate for…

We conducted a potential efficacy trial examining the effects of classroom-wide implementation of the "Pyramid Model for Promoting Young Children's Social-Emotional Competence" on teachers' implementation of "Pyramid Model" practices and children's social-emotional skills and challenging behavior. Participants were 40 preschool…

Nationally, two-thirds of high school students are unable to read and comprehend complex academic materials, think critically about texts, and synthesize information from multiple sources, or communicate what they have learned. Without a substantial change in their academic literacy, U.S. high school students face continued academic problems in…