Review of Reading Randomised Controlled Trials: Opening the Book, by R. Savage et al.

This review examines Savage et al.'s Reading Randomised Controlled Trials as both a methodological account of a large-scale school-based intervention and a reflection on how educational evidence is produced. The book is analysed through its central motif of “opening”: opening the method and theory of the trial, the institutional negotiations that made the study possible, the protocol to teachers’ professional judgement, the uncertainty of the results, and the agenda for subsequent research. Particular attention is given to the authors’ treatment of randomised controlled trials as complex cultural and institutional activities rather than self-sufficient experimental designs. The review highlights the book’s strengths in methodological transparency, its integration of theory, implementation, and process evaluation, and its recognition of teachers as contextual and pedagogical experts. Despite some limitations, the volume offers a valuable account of the theoretical, political, professional, and institutional work that separates a promising educational idea from defensible evidence.