Learning in groups, learning in loops using data for development: Implementation research grant makers

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

With the growth of data for development, evidence-based interventions and reforms have increasingly applied “what we know” about what works in education (Akyeampong et al, 2023). Given more than a dozen years of investment in researching “what works” there is ample basis for where to start in promoting learning, basic skills and the goals of SDG4. We engage less often in exploring how that evidence is used, whether and how the findings are replicated, and how the results in each context might inform and/or ensure scaling. Even when we do use additional rounds of data for development, we tend not to share the results of these efforts widely so that stakeholders locally or globally can learn from our process and progress (Dowd, 2024).

To address this gap in evidence generation and use, four funds – Global Schools Forum’s Impact at Scale Labs, Supporting Holistic and Actionable Research in Education (SHARE), uBoraBora, and What Works Hub for Global Education (WWHGE) - ran grant-making activities supporting FLN implementation research in 2024. Through this work, all four funds have all had the opportunity to develop and evolve approaches to running implementation research grant-making activities, from funding design, to calls for ideas, to signing grant agreements and everything in between. Their calls for proposals ranged in amount from 100K to 250K (USD or GBP), in length from two to dozens of pages, and in content from requiring key FLN themes to being open-ended about FLN implementation research topics. Given this variation, looking across these calls offers the opportunity to do implementation research upon our implementation research support!

Organizations supported by these mechanisms are using evidence in different ways and in different phases of programming to improve their FLN efforts. They use data for development in a continual process of implementation research to apply what works in FLN in their contexts, adapt and improve it as they move to scale their work. Building from the BE2 guidance note on implementation research (Allison, 2023), they ask and answer questions about implementation to learn whether and how contextual factors affect successful implementation in a specific system and act upon the evidence to expand impact and scale. They actively apply the What Work Hub for Global Education framework that urges implementers to get beyond efficacy trials into “Efficacy +” studies that “pressure test evidence” in new contexts and at expanded scale (Angrist & Kaffenberger, 2024).

This panel will tap into the experience of parallel action and the treasure trove of data the four calls offer to consider what our best practice should be in supporting implementation research in education development. It offers a view into the size of demand and key topics practitioners and policymakers prioritized for study. Reflections will explore two interrelated ideas. First, what small scale grant making for IR at scale has enabled so far (e.g. emerging evidence). Second, the how the process of grant-making itself has gone and how to make it work better for grantees. All of these partners have shared learnings with each other along the way and several are now circling back and reflecting on how to improve efforts in additional calls. This is one 'loop' of learning, and this panel also offers the opportunity to pursue learning in the group: what do different combinations of financial and technical support look like across these efforts and how/are we sure that we are building upon each other’s experience while offering a unique value add to diverse organizations. We will share experiences and dialogue across them, inviting feedback from each other and the audience as part of the panel.

This panel continues the conversation about what works, why, how and for whom. All participants engage in supporting implementation research around FLN programming. They are supporting the use of evidence in determining action and implementation options to iterate towards what works best in grantees’ contexts. They will consider lessons in how to support more implementation research in international education efforts and how to build community around those undertaking implementation research. They will speak to what they have funded so far, lessons about doing so effectively and what lessons they aim to apply in future calls. They’ll reflect on the systems needed to keep data for development informing new implementation research calls and generating demand across stakeholders. They will share lessons that they have learned along the way and as a first discussant, Michelle Kaffenberger will reflect on similarities and differences with the experience of the implementation research pillar of the WWHGE. Then we’ll have Clio Dintilhac of the Gates Foundation start out the reflection and dialogue as a discussant.

Sub Unit

• Philanthropy and Education SIG

Chair

• Amy Jo Dowd, NA

Individual Presentations

• Implementation research for scale - reflections from the Impact at Scale Labs - Aashti Zaidi, Global Schools Forum; Alina Lipcan

• Implementation Research in support of ecosystems - Implementation Research under SHARE - Nancy Rydberg, University of Notre Dame

• Doing implementation research on our implementation research: how we did it, how it worked and didn’t - lessons from uBoraBora - James Wilkinson, Brink

Discussants

• Michelle Kaffenberger, What Works Hub for Global Education, University of Oxford

• Clio Dintilhac, BMGF