ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on the review findings in Chapter 4 and interviews with middle and senior leaders to examine the use of evidence to inform decision-making and practice in schools and map the challenges and opportunities of doing so. School leaders recognised the potential of the collection and use of evidence to identify, communicate and implement effective practices and were, in many cases, enthusiastic about the potential benefits. We synthesise principles and strategies which leaders report to be effective. Leaders also described challenges of accessing evidence and of translating it in to a useable format in their context. They outlined practical challenges relating to leadership, workload and coordination, as well as issues with translation and implementation, sometimes resulting in unintended or negative outcomes. More generally, leaders’ perspectives identified challenges around the perceived “distance to practice” for much of the available evidence and how difficulties in interpretation and implementation carried the potential for key messages to be refracted, distorted or used in ways that were not originally intended. We examine this “last mile” problem in some detail, and present stakeholders’ views and experiences of successful approaches to promoting effective evidence-use and harnessing its potential for school improvement.
