Spending the Pupil Premium: Strategies to Improve

LearningSteve Higgins

s.e.higgins@durham.ac.uk

School of Education, Durham University

Signposts for Success – Effective Intervention for Children Looked After

17th October 2012Hertfordshire Development Centre, Stevenage

Sutton Trust Report on Spending the Pupil Premium: Toolkit of Strategies to Improve

Learning

Why we wrote it Best ‘buys’ Worst ‘buys’ Learning How might we use

it?

http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit

The pupil premium Aims:

to reduce the attainment gap between the highest and lowest achieving pupils nationally

to increase social mobility to enable more pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds

to get to the top Universities to provide additional resource to schools to do this to support looked after children

£600 in 2012-13 for fsm1 pupils; rising to £900 in 2013-14 and £1200 in 2014-15?

1 any child registered for fsm in the last six years and all looked after children

Resources and learning Above a minimum threshold –

no simple link More money ≠ more learning There is an association but

weak and complex Conclusion: spending more

won’t guarantee benefit- no simple solution

The question

How should a school spend any extra

‘discretionary’ budget to achieve maximum

benefits in learning?

The Bananarama Principle It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it…

So how do you spend £600/pupil to “get results”? Or, what does the evidence say is a good

investment or a poor investment for learning? It ain’t what you spend but the way that you

spend it…

Resources and learning

Smaller classes? Complex evidence- no clear link with class size

and achievement Experimental trials suggest

Classes need to be less than about 17 And teachers need to change the way they teach But teaching assistants not as effective

The maths: £600 x 20 pupils x 3 classes = £27,000 50%+ on fsm = 1 extra teacher per 3 classes Class size reduction from 30 to 23 – not enough

One-to-one tuition Highly effective

I hour/ day over at least 6 weeks Support for class teacher to re-integrate

The maths… 6 weeks x 5 days x 1 hour = 30 hours 4 days teacher time (more effective with an

experienced teacher) Approx £800

May work if you use pairs and target pupils only need it once a year – expensive but effective

What we tried to do Summarise the evidence from meta-analysis about the

impact of different strategies on learning (attainment). As found in research studies These are averages

Apply quality criteria to evaluations: rigorous designs only

Estimate the size of the effect Standardised Mean Difference = ‘Months of gain’

Estimate the costs of adopting Information not always available

Toolkit

Best ‘buys’...

Toolkit

Worst ‘buys’...

Toolkit

Summaries

What is it?How effective is it?How secure is the evidence?What do I need to know?

Toolkit

Feedb

ack

Meta-co

gnitio

n

Peer tu

toring

Early y

ears

interv

entio

n

One-to

-one

Homew

ork ICT

Phonic

s

Parenta

l invo

lvemen

t

Summer

scho

ols

Reduc

ing cl

ass s

izes

Sports

partic

ipatio

n

After s

choo

l prog

rammes

Learn

ing st

yles

Indivi

duali

sed i

nstru

ction

Arts pa

rticipa

tion

Perform

ance

pay

Teach

ing as

sistan

ts

Ability

grou

ping

Block t

imeta

bling

Schoo

l unif

orms

-0.1

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

Approaches and effect size estimates

Approach

Effe

ct s

ize

Overview of value for money

Cost per pupil

Effe

ct S

ize

(mon

ths

gain

)

£00

10

£1000

Feedback

Meta-cognition

Peer tutoring EY intervention

1-1 tutoringHomework

ICTPhonics

Parental involvement

Sports

Summer schools

After school

Individualised learning

Learning styles

Arts Performance pay

Teaching assistants

Smaller classes

Ability grouping

Promising

May be worth it

Notworth it

Issues and limitations Based on meta-analysis – averages of averages Conversion to ‘months progress’ is a rough

estimate Intervention research is compared with ‘normal’

practice which is varied Not ‘what works’ but what has worked – ‘good

bets’ to support professional evaluation and enquiry

Key messages Some things that are popular or widely thought

to be effective are probably not worth doing Ability grouping (setting); After-school clubs; Teaching

assistants; Smaller classes; Performance pay Some things look ‘promising’

Effective feedback; Meta-cognition and self regulation strategies; Peer tutoring; Homework (for secondary pupils)

“… we have each been asked several times by teachers, ‘What makes for good feedback?’—a question to which, at first, we had no good answer. Over the course of two or three years, we have evolved a simple answer—good feedback causes thinking.”

(Black & Wiliam, 2003)

Feedback

Meta-cognition and self regulation strategies

Teaching approaches which make learners’ thinking about learning more explicit in the classroom. E.g. teaching pupils strategies to plan, to monitor and to

evaluate their own learning. It is usually more effective in small groups so

learners can support each other and make their thinking explicit through discussion.

Self-regulation refers to managing one’s own motivation towards learning AND managing one’s thinking and reasoning (cognitive aspects).

Peer tutoring Learners work in pairs or small groups to provide each

other with explicit teaching support. The learners take on responsibility for aspects of teaching and for evaluating the success of their peers. Cross-Age Tutoring an older learner usually takes the tutoring

role and is paired with a younger tutee or tutees. Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) is a structured

approach for mathematics and reading requiring set periods of time for implementation of about 25-35 minutes 2 or 3 times a week.

Reciprocal Peer Tutoring: learners alternate between the role of tutor and tutee.

Effective strategies Effective feedback (needs trust) Build learning relationships Support social interaction and support One-to-one tuition – with an experienced teacher Small group collaborative learning

Is that it?

Have we solved the problem of how

to improve attainment?

The challenges (1): implementation These strategies have been shown to be cost-effective

in research studies But when we have tried to implement evidence-based

strategies we have not seen system-wide improvement (e.g. AfL)

We don’t know how to get schools/teachers who are not currently doing them to do so in ways that are True to the key principles Feasible in real classrooms – with all their constraints Scalable and replicable Sustainable

The challenges (2) : making it work for you

This is what has worked (on average) Where is there leverage for improvement in your

work? Will it build capacity?

For learners? For teachers?

How will this apply to children looked after?

Research example: Letterbox club Once monthly personalised parcels posted to ‐

children in their foster homes Reading materials, story CDs, stationery and

mathematics games 7 11 years, May to October‐ Aims to improve attainment levels in reading and

number skills Booktrust, Leicester Uni, DfE

http://fileserver.booktrust.org.uk/usr/resources/516/queens-letterbox-evaluation-full-report-1-1-.pdf

Winter K., Connolly P., Bell, I. and Ferguson, J. (2011) An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Letterbox Club in Improving Educational Outcomes among Children

Aged 7 11 Years in Foster Care in Northern Ireland, ‐ Belfast: Centre for Effective Education, Queen’s University Belfast.

How will the Toolkit develop? Next update planned for January – a more

dynamic resource with evidence of effective practice based on rigorous evaluation

It will grow as the evidence base does; EEF projects will help fill-in the gaps and expand the scope

The EEF will also create practical examples of the interventions backed up by evidence – e.g. training, programmes and approaches that schools can use

LinksThe full report can be found on the EEF’s website: http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/ With information about the background to the analysis: http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/uploads/pdf/Technical_Appendices_(July_2012).pdf The toolkit is recommended by the Department for Education: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/premium/b00200492/ppstrategies Official information about the Pupil Premium and LA allocations is available at: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/adminandfinance/financialmanagement/schoolsrevenuefunding/a00200697/pupil-premium-2012-13 Ofsted’s report is available at: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/pupil-premium

Low cost

High Impact

Low Impact

High cost

Key points What will you do?

How will you connect this to learning?How will you connect this to attainment?

BUT what will you stop doing?

For every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, neat…

and WRONG!

H.L. Mencken 1880-1956