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Evidence-Based Education (EBE)

Evidence-Based Education (EBE). Grover J. Whitehurst Director Institute of Education Sciences United States Department of Education. What is EBE?. Using the best available empirical evidence in making decisions about how to deliver education activities and programs.

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Evidence-Based Education (EBE)

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  1. Evidence-Based Education (EBE) Grover J. Whitehurst Director Institute of Education Sciences United States Department of Education

  2. What is EBE? • Using the best available empirical evidence in making decisions about how to deliver education activities and programs

  3. What is empirical evidence? • Scientifically-based research from fields such as psychology, sociology, economics, and neuroscience, and especially from research in educational settings • Performance data used to compare, evaluate, and monitor progress

  4. Evidence-based Education

  5. Why EBE? • The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 • Failure of current practice to generate progress, resolve competing approaches, avoid fad & fancy • Success of evidence-based practice in other fields • Importance of education outcomes for students and the nation

  6. Good Intentions Aren’t Enough • The vendor synthesizes research evidence • The developer claims that the reading program works • The state evaluates a teacher training program

  7. Medicine as Model • A little history • An example: The HRT study

  8. The HRT Study • Sample: 27,000+ Women, aged 50-79. • Research Design: Women randomly assigned to receive either hormone therapy or a placebo • Hypothesis: HRT will reduce heart disease and fractures without increasing breast cancer

  9. The HRT Study

  10. Social Policy and ED examples • Nurse-home visitation • DARE • Welfare reform • High quality preschool • National Reading Panel report

  11. Scientifically Based Research “…means research that involves the application of rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge relevant to education activities and programs” (No Child Left Behind Act of 2001)

  12. Scientifically-based Research • Quality • To what degree does the design and analysis and logical inference support the claims and conclusions? • Relevance • To what degree are the variables and circumstances similar across the research and the settings in which the research is to be applied?

  13. Randomized Trials to Measure Impact • Claim about the effects of an education activity or program on outcomes • Two or more conditions that differ in levels of exposure to the educational intervention • Random assignment to conditions • Tests for differences in outcomes

  14. Why is randomization critical? • Assures that the participants being compared have the same characteristics across the conditions • Rules of chance mean that the smart, motivated, experienced, etc. have the same probability of being in condition 1 as in condition 2 • Without randomization, differences between two conditions may result from pre-existing difference in the participants and subtle selection biases

  15. Alternatives to Randomization • Weaker research designs to measure impact • Comparison groups • Times series • Pre-post • Multiple data points • Best practice (clearly above average) • Alignment

  16. What ED is going • The What Works Clearinghouse (w-w-c.org) • Systematic research programs to fill gaps • Reading comprehension • Preschool curriculum • Teacher quality • National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Technical Assistance • Build capacity

  17. W-W-C: How you can benefit? • Learning where good evidence does and does not exist • Learning what evidence says about what does and doesn’t work in areas related to your program • Raising the bar for the quality of educational outcomes research • Identifying resources for evaluations

  18. Goals • ED will provide the tools, information, research, and training to support the development of evidence-based education • The practice of evidence-based education will become routine • Education across the nation will be continuously improved • Wide variation in performance across schools and classrooms will be eliminated

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