Blog Archive of: Education Endowment Foundation
A quiet revolution?
28 June 2018
The total number of TAs working in English schools is down for the first time ever – but encouraging signs from the MITA project show how a strategic focus on TAs can unlock their potential.
After the gold rush: Funding, staffing and uncertain times
15 December 2016
Research evidence can’t offer certainties, but it can help school leaders make better decisions.
The Magnificent Seven: The compelling evidence on TA impact and where we go next
30 October 2016
The evidence on deploying TAs to deliver out-of-class interventions is unarguable. Our new MITA project aims to show that up-skilling TAs and carefully rethinking their use within classrooms can unleash their full potential.
What I’ve learned from the teaching profession (or why you can’t ever have enough of experts!)
28 September 2016
Our work with the Education Endowment Foundation has shown how the teaching profession and researchers can unite around the evidence to co-construct solutions for making better use of teaching assistants. In this blog, Rob Webster reflects on what he has learnt from working closely with those at the chalk-face.
After delays and debacle, new professional standards for TAs are here
10 June 2016
22 months after they were commissioned, new professional standards for TAs have been published. And the come with some heavyweight backing.
Making headlines: The problem of wide coverage and narrow reporting
28 February 2016
What happens when provocative findings from educational research get wide coverage, but are narrowly reported? What are the risks to policymakers, practitioners and researchers? Rob Webster shares his experience of helping schools make sense of the headlines about teaching assistants.
The power and potential of teaching assistants’ talk
01 September 2015
How can we connect TAs with the kinds of practice that have a measurable impact on achievement? Our new book, The Teaching Assistant’s Guide to Effective Interaction, aims to grow schools' capacity and opportunity for the valuable types of classroom talk that improve pupils' independence and their relationship with learning.
The freedom to make decisions about teaching assistants is nothing new, but now school leaders have the means to unlock their potential
26 February 2015
Evidence-informed guidance and the DfE's new professional standards for TAs offer school leaders actionable recommendations to help TAs thrive in their role and improve outcomes for pupils.
2014 ends with positive noises for TAs… but what will 2015 bring?
17 December 2014
Back in January, we predicted that 2014 could be the year of the teaching assistant. So as the year ends – and as MITA celebrates its first birthday! – it’s a good time to reflect on what the year has meant for TAs, and what 2015 might bring. Here’s our review of the year.