Dr Veruska Oppedisano, Senior Lecturer in Economics, and Professor Richard Dorsett, Professor of Economic Evaluation at the University of Westminster, have won a bid to be part of a research consortium to evaluate ‘Tuition Partners,’ a government project to help disadvantaged students during the coronavirus outbreak.
‘Tuition Partners’ is a nationwide programme of subsidised tuition targeted at disadvantaged students who need catch-up support due to the closing of schools and lost teaching time during lockdown.
The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) is the consortium lead of the project. The other partner organisations are Kantar, which has experience with rigorous programme evaluation, GL assessment, who will contribute with testing coverage, and the University of Westminster. Dr Oppedisano and Professor Dorsett will contribute to the design of the intervention and analyse the data to determine its impact.
The proposal has been successful, and the Endowment Education Foundation has appointed the consortium for the evaluation of this intervention. It is a £1.6m evaluation, with £120k for the University of Westminster.
Dr Oppedisano said: “I feel very excited being involved in this project. Tuition Partners is the largest intervention that the government is implementing to help disadvantaged students close their attainment gap with their peers due to school closure during the lockdown. I think this intervention has the potential to address students' inequalities exacerbated by Covid and I hope it will contribute in giving more opportunities to students more negatively affected by the school closure during the lockdown.”
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