Student Placement: Education Endowment Foundation

About the Student

Chris Reid – School of Education, Communication & Society, King’s College London
PhD topic: Learning Science: What’s Curiosity Got To Do With It?
Host: Education Endowment Foundation (EEF)
When: September 2024 – February 2025 (part-time over 6 months)

 

Placement overview

Chris undertook a six-month part-time internship with the EEF, a leading organisation in educational research and evaluation. His placement focused on supporting the Evaluation Team in commissioning and managing high-quality evaluations of education programmes, particularly those aligned with strategic priorities such as post-16 education, teacher retention, and digital pedagogies.

Key Activities and Contributions

  • Evaluation & Research Support: Chris contributed to methodological scoping, outcome measures, and data source identification for post-16 education strategies. He reviewed evaluation proposals and supported design meetings and reporting processes.
  • Synthesis & Meta-Analysis: He worked with the Synthesis Team to update guidance on metacognition and conducted literature reviews. He also developed skills in performing meta-analyses using R.
  • Internal CPD & Knowledge Sharing: Chris led a well-received CPD session titled “What we talk about when we talk about evidence: A primer on paradigms”, and organised the internal methods presentation archive to improve accessibility and understanding across teams.
  • Stakeholder Engagement: He liaised with external stakeholders and participated in webinars and training sessions, co-producing outputs and proposing recommendations for future work.

Student’s reflections

The placement gave Chris hands-on experience with large-scale education research he couldn’t get from his PhD alone.

The internship provided him with:

  • Practical project management skills, including timeline planning and milestone tracking.
  • Exposure to large-scale quantitative research, including randomised controlled trials and quasi-experimental designs.
  • Insight into the intersection of educational policy and research, enriching his understanding of how evidence informs practice.
  • Career development opportunities, particularly in educational evaluation and policy-related research.
  • Leading a popular training session called “What we talk about when we talk about evidence: A primer on paradigms”

    The placement changed how he thinks about his own research and made him aware of the varied careers that exist within educational research and evaluation.

    ” The placement has allowed me access to the field of evaluation within educational research, about which I had little previous knowledge. The skills and experience the internship has provided me are likely to be very useful to me in my career.“

    PhD supervisor’s view

    Dr Melissa Glackin commended the internship’s alignment with Chris’s academic development, particularly its relevance to his research and future career. She noted his growth in methodological rigour and his successful engagement with policy-relevant research practices.

     

     “During his internship at the EEF, Chris gained valuable insights into large-scale research and quantitative methodologies… It was an ideal organisation for him to be within during this period of his academic development as it works at the interface of education policy and research.”

    What the host said

    The EEF team praised Chris’s contributions, noting that he exceeded expectations and left a lasting impact on their post-16 strategy and internal CPD programme. His proactive approach, technical expertise, and collaborative spirit were highlighted as key strengths.

     

    “He jumped at the opportunity to work with the Synthesis team… and was always ready and willing to shadow different aspects of the Programmes and Evaluation team’s work.”

     “Based on our experience with Chris, both in terms of how much support he provided professionally and what a lovely addition he was to the team on a more personal level, we most certainly would consider hosting another LISS DTP student at the EEF.”

    The experience demonstrates how placements can help PhD students understand the bigger picture of how research gets turned into practical improvements in education.