ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a summary of the final Department for Education research report from Closing the Gap: Test and Learn. It draws out the main features of the programme, the different phases of delivery and the developments that took place in response to the increasing levels of engagement that schools demonstrated. The Teaching Schools' research and development advisory group carried out a ranking exercise for the long-list interventions, considering them in terms of likely take-up and manageability for large-scale trialling. The programme design incorporated one additional feature based on the wait list control group design which is sometimes used in clinical studies. The programme has clearly demonstrated the capacity of schools to engage in research through large-scale multi-arm trials and micro-randomised controlled trials; this also increased engagement with research and discussion of research findings. Effective use of large-scale evidence is likely to require good diagnosis and targeting – and training of school leaders to understand how to do this.
