Measuring EdTech impact: why the evidence is so hard to produce and so easy to misrepresent
Running a proper evaluation of an EdTech product in a school is expensive, slow and ethically complicated. This is why most products do not have one.
By Wistl Editorial · · Labs
The gold standard for evidence of educational effectiveness is a randomised controlled trial: some pupils receive an intervention, others do not, and outcomes are compared over a sufficient period to detect meaningful effects. In clinical medicine, this methodology is mandatory before a treatment can be approved. In education, it is rare, difficult and contested, and the number of EdTech products that have been evaluated this way is a small fraction of what is sold into schools. The practical obstacles are significant. Schools cannot be randomised in the way that trial participants can be. Pup