Contributing to identifying the circumstances under which implementation is most or least likely to be effective

More evidence is needed about the circumstances (e.g., institutional structures, systems, policies) that facilitate or inhibit successful blended learning implementation. Research can and should take the form of validation experiments, and implementation studies.

The overarching goal of TLA’s Measurement Agenda is to unify the evidence and implementation cycles so that evidence-based practices are implemented in order to provide each student with an effective, equitable, and engaging education that enables them to reach their full potential.

This strategy contributes to that goal by ensuring that we all better understand the circumstances that facilitate or inhibit effective implementation. Educators, decision-makers, researchers, and funders all have a role to play in the generation of evidence.

Educators and decision-makers should open up their classrooms to enable measurement. Both controlled and “real world” studies must take place in classroom (both digital and in-person) environments. Controlled studies may focus on holding variables like grade level, content area, even educator, constant, but efficacy cannot be studied in a lab (outside of a classroom).

Researchers and funders should focus on specific identified gaps in sector’s evidence base. Researchers also should push for progressively greater clarity about the exact nature of the interventions they are studying through rich descriptions and explicit definitions of the comparison conditions they are measuring, in addition to their interventions.

All stakeholders need to be patient: generating rigorous evidence takes time.