Education Endowment Foundation

The Sutton Trust-EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit was developed from the Pupil Premium Toolkit commissioned by the Sutton Trust and produced by Durham University in May 2011.^[8] The Toolkit summarises the findings of more than 13,000 trials from around the world.^[8]

In the autumn of 2012, the EEF announced trials of its first four grant-funded projects. Since 2012, the EEF has funded a total of 145 projects involving 9,400 schools, nurseries and colleges.^[9]

In 2014, the EEF published its first independent project evaluation. To date, 84 evaluations have been published, with the majority of these designed as randomised controlled trials.^[10] The EEF have commissioned more than 10 per cent of all known trials in education around the world.^[8]

The EEF Families of Schools database, launched in 2015, is an interactive tool that puts schools into families of 50 based on factors including prior attainment, percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals and the number of children with English as an additional language. The attainment of pupils on a range of measures can then be compared with similar schools.^[11]

It allows schools to understand the size and nature of their attainment gap in relation to other similar institutions and provides new information, with the aim of helping schools to learn from the best performing school in each family.^[11]

In 2014, the EEF extended its remit to include early years, with the aim of developing an understanding of how to support the learning of 3-4 year olds, in particular those eligible for free school meals.^[12]

The EEF launched the Early Years Toolkit in 2015, which aims to provide guidance for early years professionals on how to use their resources to improve the learning of disadvantaged children. The toolkit covers 12 topics and summarises research from 1,600 studies.^[13]

The Research Schools Network is a collaboration between the EEF and the Institute for Effective Education (IEE) to create a network of schools to support the use of evidence to improve teaching practice.^[14]

Research Schools act as regional hubs for the Research Schools Network. Through the network, they attempt to share what they know about putting research into practice, and support schools to make better use of evidence to inform their teaching and learning.^[14]

Launched in 2016, the Network initially consisted of 11 schools. In 2017, Education Secretary Justine Greening announced plans to set up 12 new research schools in the government's "opportunity areas" – identified as social mobility 'coldspots' – areas with both poor social mobility and schools that face challenges.^[15]

The Network currently numbers 32 schools.^[16]

In 2014, the EEF began working with school systems in Australia to develop an Australian version of the Teaching and Learning Toolkit, taking the global evidence base that underpins the Toolkit and contextualising it with recent examples of local research to enhance its relevance for Australian teachers.^[17]

The Australian work was joined in February 2017 by the work of Education Scotland, which has led to the development of a Scottish version of the Toolkit to strengthen the use of evidence underpinning the Scottish Attainment Challenge.^[18]

In July 2017, the EEF entered into a new partnership in Latin America and the Caribbean with SUMMA (the Laboratory of Education Research and Innovation for Latin America and the Caribbean).^[19]

• Department for Education
• Education in England
• Pupil premium