Learning Brief: Evidence-use in community-led learning ecosystems

This learning brief presents key findings from a broader review conducted by OTT Consulting for the Jacobs Foundation. It offers a shortened and accessible version of the main report for time-pressed readers.

The review explores how evidence is generated, understood, and used within CLLEs. To address this, OTT Consulting examined three interconnected areas of literature and practice:

  1. community-led learning ecosystems (CLLEs);
  2. evidence use in education;
  3. the broader evidence-informed policy field.

The methodology included:

  • a desk-based literature review;
  • 25 semi-structured interviews with key informants from practice, policy, and philanthropy; and
  • an analysis of global case studies and documented initiatives in the CLLE space.

Together, these methods provided a foundation for identifying trends, challenges, and emerging practices around evidence use in CLLEs.