The Learning Lab can

• support policymakers and evaluators with knowledge, tools, methods and resources to make their public spending on education and training cost-effective
• encourage an evidence-informed approach to policy design and implementation in education, bringing together the European Commission and the relevant authorities in the interested EU countries
• promote evaluation of education policies tailored to specific local, regional and national needs, and encourage their use in policymaking

Who can participate

• policy makers active at the national, regional and local levels
• members of the civil society, including social partners
• education practitioners

Community of Practice

The Community of Practice on Counterfactual Impact Evaluation of Education Policies (CoP-EP) aims to foster collaboration between its members by sharing good practices, discussing common issues and learning from each other. Its focus is causal impact evaluation of education policies.

The Community meets twice a year in Brussels (Belgium) or in another participating country interested to host one of the meetings.

Training courses and exchange of practices on education policy evaluation

• get an in-depth overview of good practices on evaluating the impacts of education policies
• learn how to use causal methodologies to inform the evaluation process, from the design to the choice of data, the analysis and the interpretation of results

The fundamentals of evaluation practice are taught by using examples of education policy evaluations as well as interactive sessions. These provide a wide array of reference learning material.

You can choose from two kinds of training courses:

• general online training courses (for representatives from all EU countries)
• face-to-face training courses (tailored to specific needs of the interested country)

Customised technical support on policy evaluation

The Learning Lab offers customised support on education policy impact evaluation for local, regional, and national authorities.

You can get help to understand and put all the steps of an evaluation process in place.

With this support, the Learning Lab accompanies policymakers throughout the different phases of the evaluation process.

Support includes help on

• the evaluation design phase
• data preparation
• choosing suitable evaluation methods
• methodological support in carrying out the analysis for the impact evaluation
• how to communicate the results effectively and consistently

Evaluations of education interventions

Experts of the Learning Lab can conduct counterfactual impact evaluation (CIE) studies of education policies in EU countries. These evaluations are free of charge.

Next call for applications will open in 2025.