Our Guiding Principles

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We are independent and non-partisan. 

Education.org’s agenda is defined by the policy and practice landscape, with a focus on national needs and priorities, rather than a client-service or donor-led intervention. Our independence is important as we seek to address fundamental constraints in a sector that is fraught with biases and competing agendas.  

We aim to foster transparency around the use of evidence, and model this in the ways we work and spend the resources that we have. 

Education.org’s credibility is built on our work being conducted transparently and following a pre-specified analytic protocol. Publishing these protocols on a public website builds trust that our findings can be used for decision-making purposes. Reporting transparently on our activities and use of the financial resources entrusted to us ensures our partners know we operate efficiently and with integrity.

We leverage networks and build bridges across communities and organisations to democratise the use of evidence. We strive to amplify existing knowledge and collaborate effectively with those who work with us. 

We maximise the potential for change by bringing the right content and people together, and by using the most effective channels for meaningful engagement. We combine evidence with practical experience and build purposeful partnerships and networks with others who will work with us.

We strive to design and implement an inclusive approach in everything we do. Equity is at the heart of our mission to reach every learner, particularly the most marginalised and hard to reach children and young people.

We aim to diversify the sources and broaden the range of valued evidence in the education sector, elevating local evidence and experiences into wider application and knowledge. We translate global evidence into local contexts; and prioritise our work on issues that most affect the learning of the most marginalised children and young people. 

We are agile in the way we work, across all stages of development and delivery. We put a premium on adapting to needs, and evolving our activities and competencies to reflect what we are learning along the way.

An ability to reflect and adapt quickly to changing circumstances is a critical part of our culture and skillset. We plan carefully but build in opportunities for rapid testing and refinement. Since launching Education.org on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we respond nimbly and effectively to changing needs, unafraid of complexity and uncertainty, alive to new and unexpected opportunities.  

We focus on changing education policy primarily at the country level, monitoring impact so that our work promotes more effective use of national resources and better learning outcomes.

We focus on the concerns of education decision-makers across government and society; and want to maximise use of existing rather than create new evidence. We identify dynamic partners, best practices, and unexpected successes to enable the implementation of evidence into policies and practices that address barriers to learning.