Startups are lauded for bringing ideas into the real world, being responsive to customers and adapting quickly – qualities that senior cabinet office minister Pat McFadden recently called on Whitehall to embrace.
But schools operate in a very different context from startups. Teachers have limited time and resources, meaning that any new approaches must be thoroughly considered and effective. The time pupils spend at school is scarce too, so the stakes are high.
One way to strike the balance is with the deceptively simple model of ‘test and learn’. At its heart lies a willingness to trial new ideas, gather evidence, and rapidly iterate to improve outcomes. This agile approach is often contrasted with the perceived single-mindedness of institutions in the public sector.
The major challenges facing schools – the retention and recruitment of teachers, the increasing complexity of leadership, and disparities in pupil outcomes – demand evidence-based solutions.
This is why many schools, academy trusts, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and teacher-training providers like ourselves at the National Institute of Teaching (NIoT) are already carefully applying a test-and-learn philosophy, grounded in robust research and close partnerships with others. The mission is not to ‘disrupt’ but to refine and scale what works to benefit the whole schools ecosystem.
Applying the startup approach too literally comes with its own set of risks. Many startups burn through vast amounts of capital chasing growth at all costs, only to collapse under the weight of their own ambitions. For every ‘unicorn’ (a startup that goes on to have a billion-dollar valuation), there are countless ventures that fizzle out without a trace.
In education, where resources are already limited, we cannot afford to be careless because doing so pulls much-needed resources from children, which then risks their chance to access a quality education.
Nor should we emulate the ruthless competition that defines much of the startup world, such as what typifies the culture in Silicon Valley. Education is not a zero-sum game; collaboration, not rivalry, should be our guiding principle as system leaders.
It is possible to innovate while maintaining care and rigour.
Success for startups is governed by the market: ‘good’ ideas make money, ‘bad’ ideas lead to products for which there is no demand. In education, as in other areas of public service, knowing the real-world value of a product – be that any policy, intervention, or mode of delivery – is harder.
Markets fail in this regard; there are likely many education products that don’t ‘work’ as intended but are popular with customers, nonetheless. As such, as well as generating innovations, robust research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of innovative ideas in the real world, functioning much like markets do for startups.
This is a lot to add to an already stretched sector and when there’s an urgency to make a difference.
What we can learn from startups, however, is their bias towards action. Too often, policy debates in education can become mired in abstraction, with discussions that fail to yield tangible change. Our contention, and that of many others in the system, is that it is possible to innovate while maintaining care and rigour.
Crucially, the feedback loops extend to us as researchers; we are as much learners in this process as the educators we work with. Accepting that no one has all the answers is essential for any test-and-learn approach in education.
Startup culture celebrates adages like “move fast and break things” and “fail fast”. In schools, however, failure is not an option. That does not mean we should avoid innovation, but it does mean we must innovate responsibly.
When we ask schools to participate in research, we are acutely aware of the trust they place in us. Every trial we run at the NIoT is guided by clear ethical principles, with processes that carefully assess the balance of disruption against the value for teachers and ultimately, pupils.
By prioritising scalable interventions – from new ways to support ITE mentors to ways of using anonymised assessment data to measure teacher impact – we can foster a culture of continuous improvement that uplifts the entire schools ecosystem.
Great challenges afford great opportunities for transformative impact. With a thoughtful and collaborative test-and-learn approach, we can turn these opportunities into lasting, transformative change that benefits every teacher and pupil.
