# Presentation: 137399

## Evidence-Based Education (EBE)

- Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst
- Assistant Secretary
- Educational Research and Improvement
- United States Department of Education

## What is EBE?

- The integration of professional wisdom with the best available empirical evidence in making decisions about how to deliver instruction

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## What is professional wisdom?

- The judgment that individuals acquire through experience
- Increased professional wisdom is reflected in numerous ways, including the effective identification and incorporation of local circumstances into instruction

## What is empirical evidence?

- Scientifically based research from fields such as psychology, sociology, economics, and neuroscience, and especially from research in educational settings
- Objective measures of performance used to compare, evaluate, and monitor progress

## Why are both needed?

- Without professional wisdom education cannot
- adapt to local circumstances
- operate intelligently in the many areas in which research evidence is absent or incomplete.
- Without empirical evidence education cannot
- resolve competing approaches
- generate cumulative knowledge
- avoid fad, fancy, and personal bias

## Scientifically Based Research

- Quality
- Relevance

## Quality: Levels of evidence

- All evidence is NOT created equal
- Randomized trial
- Quasi-experiment,  including before & after
- Correlational study with statistical controls
- Correlational study w/o statistical controls
- Case studies

## Randomized Trials: The gold standard

- Claim about the effects of an educational intervention 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

## 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, e.g., more smart ones in condition 1

## Why is randomization critical?

- Average science scores by students' reports on use of the Internet at home

- Without randomization, simple associations such as between internet use and science grades have many different interpretations

##  Relevance

- Does the study involve a similar intervention and outcome to those of interest?
- Were the participants and settings representative of those of interest?
- Were enough participants involved to justify generalization?

## EBE: How to use existing science

- Search literature (ERIC, Campbell Collaboration, PsychInfo, etc.)
- Screen literature
- Relevance
- Quality
- Search for pre-digested evidence
- Narrative reviews (ERIC digests)
- Systematic reviews (meta-analysis)

## Screening research -- Cautions

- Unconditional conclusions
- Conclusions involving hypotheticals
- Conclusions that diverge from evidence
- Strong calls to action
- Mixtures of opinions with evidence
- Low prestige publication outlet
- Publication outlet with ideological agenda

## Evidence will not make the decision 

- Be skeptical
- Consider other ways of achieving goal
- Consider consequences and local circumstances
- Consult with experts who understand evidence before making costly decisions (This is different from consulting authorities who may know the subject area but not rules of evidence)

## EBE: How to use objective measures

- Find or develop local data
- measure and measure frequently
- stagger the introduction of an innovation across sites
- compare between and within
- Search state and national databases for benchmarks
- www.edtrust.org
- www.greatschools.net
- www.ses.standardandpoors.com
- www.just4kids.org

## Example of using local evidence

- Benchmarking using the _[www.edtrust.org](http://www.edtrust.org/)__ website to identify high flying schools in your state with similar demographics_

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## EBE -- Where are we?

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## What ED will do

- The What Works Clearinghouse
- interventions linked to evidentiary support
- systematic reviews
- standards for & providers of evaluations
- Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research
- Well designed, timely, & nonpartisan evaluations of ED’s own programs
- Funding for evaluations of promising innovations in the field
- Build capacity

## 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