Policy-based evidence: the schools inspectorate in England, research and school mathematics policy

Increasingly, debates about school mathematics curriculum and pedagogy reference evidence and research. Policymakers and others seek to influence practice is through regulatory bodies such as inspection services, like the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) in England. In 2021, Ofsted published a series of curriculum research reviews, including one focused on mathematics. Using features of education review quality, we analyse Ofsted’s departure from accepted ways to synthesise research in the creation of policy-based evidence. Ofsted disregards usual scholarly norms of research with a lack of transparency, weakness of research design and search strategy, and lack of rigour in the selection of evidence. Further, much of the cited research is misinterpreted and misused, and unwarranted causal claims are made with overgeneralisation and oversimplification being a consistent thread through the review. A specific exemplification of this is the misappropriation of research on problem solving leading to recommendations conflicting with both the National Curriculum in England and the findings of other, more rigorous, research reviews. From this analysis, we argue that the Mathematics Review is an example of ‘policy-based evidence’ and point to ways that inspection evidence can complement mathematics education research to support evidence informed policy and practice.