Behind the scenes – Preparing for a gold standard evaluation with the Education Endowment Foundation

At Action Tutoring, we’re excited to be working with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) on a gold-standard evaluation of our work.

The evaluation will explore the impact of our secondary maths programme. Having developed this over 13 years, through more than 150 school partnerships, Action Tutoring will be undertaking a rigorous evaluation design to better understand its impact.

Here, we’ll share what went into the decision-making process, the preparations involved, and our hopes for what this evaluation can achieve.

If you want to find out more about how your school can get involved, click for more information below:

Preparing for evaluation: defining focus and scale

One of the first and most significant steps in preparing for the evaluation was deciding where to focus. As a charity working with pupils in both maths and English across primary and secondary schools, narrowing the scope was essential. 

While maths was always going to be the subject of focus (a priority area for the EEF), we needed to determine whether to include all age groups or target a specific phase. Aligning our impact goals with the EEF’s research priorities (in this case, key stage 4 maths) helped ensure the evaluation would address meaningful questions for both organisations.

As well as aligning with EEF’s research priorities, our key stage 4 programme has been delivered and developed for over a decade, where we have built up a significant body of evidence to support it, already to a high standard——for example, an independent study found an impact on GCSE point scores equivalent to a third of a grade.

Another critical decision was the scale of the evaluation. The EEF funds trials on three levels, ranging from pilots—exploring promising initiatives early in development—up to effectiveness trials, which evaluate impact under real-world implementation). Ultimately, we agreed to an effectiveness trial, an ambitious choice that reflects the scale at which Action Tutoring already operates. Importantly, this decision balanced Action Tutoring’s ability to maintain the quality of our delivery with the EEF’s goals for robust, real-world insights.

What are we measuring?

Central to this evaluation is assessing our programme’s impact on pupil attainment in maths. At its core, Action Tutoring aims to improve exam results for young people facing disadvantage, keeping doors open for their future opportunities. However, the evaluation also provides a rare opportunity to rigorously explore the broader benefits of tuition, such as building pupils’ confidence and self-belief in maths.

The evaluation will include what is known as a  ‘nimble trial’, which may test promising strategies to enhance the impact of the tutoring, for example by testing promising methods for improving pupil engagement in the intervention.

These elements, while harder to measure, represent an exciting area of untapped potential. By evaluating not just academic outcomes but also softer skills like confidence, we hope to gain a fuller picture of the transformative impact our work can have.

Through a competitive process, the EEF commissioned NFER to design an evaluation that would explore all these questions robustly – tailored to the essential components of Action Tutoring’s unique model.

Hopes for the future

As we embark on this evaluation, our aspirations extend beyond simply gathering data. This is an opportunity to refine our model further, ensuring that we’re delivering the greatest possible impact to the pupils and schools we work with.

Additionally, we want this evaluation to add to the broader evidence base in education policy and research. Action Tutoring’s model is unique in utilising the power of volunteer tutors and a well-structured, evidence-based curriculum. By assessing the effectiveness of these components, we hope to provide valuable insights into how volunteer-led tutoring can support pupils facing disadvantage at scale.

A commitment to impact

Looking ahead, we’re confident that this evaluation will demonstrate the positive difference our programmes make. Multiple previous studies have already shown that attendance at tutoring sessions is associated with higher maths attainment, particularly in maths. Year after year, we see our Year 11 pupils exceed national average pass rates in GCSE maths—despite having been at higher risk of missing out on this benchmark. With this evidence in mind, we’re optimistic about the findings of this evaluation and the potential to scale up our work to reach even more young people.

Equally important is ensuring that the evaluation process runs smoothly for everyone involved – our volunteers, our team, school teachers, and most important of all, the young people taking part. We are determined that this should feel like Action Tutoring at its best.

A challenge and an opportunity

This gold-standard evaluation represents both a challenge and an opportunity. It’s a chance to hold Action Tutoring’s work to the highest standards, learn from the process, and contribute to the wider field of education. At Action Tutoring, we don’t settle for simply believing our work makes a difference – we want to know it does.

By sharing the evaluator’s findings, we aim to demonstrate the power of volunteer-led tutoring to address educational inequality. Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds deserve the best support possible, and this evaluation is an important step towards achieving that goal at greater scale.