CoP

On June 24th, 2025, we held the fourth meeting of the Community of Practice (CoP) on Education Policy Impact Evaluation.

The online meeting brought together policymakers, evaluators, and education experts from across Europe to discuss practical approaches for generating robust evidence on what works in education and training. The session focused on the design and implementation of pilot projects and Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs), and the role these can play in supporting evidence-informed policy decisions.

The keynote address was delivered by Katherina Thomas (OECD), who offered a clear and practical guide to planning and conducting Randomised Controlled Trials in education and training. The presentation provided a comprehensive roadmap for RCT planning, including the development of evaluation questions and a theory of change, preparation of an evaluation protocol, ethical considerations, sample size calculations, and the importance of piloting. Among the most salient takeaways were the importance of engaging stakeholders early, ensuring high data quality, mitigating resistance to randomisation, and using pilots to anticipate and resolve logistical or technical issues. Dr. Thomas concluded by encouraging policymakers to treat evaluations as opportunities to learn and improve, rather than merely report outcomes.

The meeting continued with the presentation of two case studies by Inga Nekrošienė from the Lithuanian Centre for Inclusion in Education, and Joana Duarte (DGEEC) and Pedro Luis Silva (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) from Portugal. The last part of the meeting featured several breakout sessions to discuss experiences in policy evaluation planning and RCTs.

To learn more about the last meeting of the CoP, check the flash report and all presentations in our Teams channel.

Stay tuned for the next meeting of the CoP in autumn!