Peck Co-Authors National Guide to Evaluating Causal Evidence in Education

The Future of Evidence in Education Network, a cross-sector group of researchers, evaluators, and evidence leaders, recently released two reports on improving the production and use of evidence in education. Schools are under growing pressure to improve student outcomes as national assessments continue to show significant academic challenges. Districts and states must make consequential decisions about curricula, programs, policies, digital products, and AI-enabled tools. These decisions require investments of money, staff time, and instructional time. The released reports provide guidance for making those decisions and for strengthening the education R&D system that supports them.

Laura R. Peck, Ph.D.

Associate Professor Laura R. Peck, Principal Faculty Fellow at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, is a member of the 16-person Future of Evidence in Education Network group and a co-author of the second report, Evaluating Causal Evidence in Education: A Practical Guide.

“I am grateful to have had a chance to work with the Network to develop this guide to understanding causal evidence in education policy arena. Federal support of evidence regarding public policies and programs is critical to improving the educational outcomes of student nationwide,” Peck said.

The first report, Necessary but Not Sufficient: Six Design Principles for a Stronger Education R&D System, examines the institutions, investments, research practices, and partnerships needed to support education R&D. It argues that rigorous individual studies are only one part of the knowledge leaders need. Its six principles call for rigorous, independent, decision-relevant research; transparent reporting and review; planning and synthesis across studies; research capacity and durable partnerships; sustained public investment in research infrastructure and innovation; and ongoing assessment of whether the whole system is producing knowledge that serves its public purpose.

The report is intended for researchers, funders, government agencies, research organizations, and others who shape how education research is created and used. The principles provide a framework for designing investments, institutions, and research practices that produce the kinds of knowledge education leaders need.

The second, companion report, Evaluating Causal Evidence in Education: A Practical Guide, focuses on using causal evidence to inform decisions. Its ten principles address what readers need to know: what is required to implement the program; what the program was compared with; which outcomes were measured; how large and precise the estimated effects were, and whether those effects mattered in practice; how relevant the study population and setting were to the decision at hand; how to interpret subgroup findings; and how these same principles should be applied to personalized, algorithmic, and other emerging tools.

The guide is designed for education leaders considering whether to adopt, pilot, continue, or scale a program, product, practice, or policy. Rather than rating programs or certifying “what works,” the guide provides a set of questions to help leaders judge what conclusions the evidence supports, whether findings apply to the decision at hand, and what the evidence does not yet tell them.