Paul Crisp is the Managing Director of CUREE and its Chief Information Officer (CIO), He has strategic responsibility for knowledge management, quantitative analyses, ICT-heavy projects and those principally located in FE and HE sectors. He is very interested in the intersection of (and differences between) leadership and governance and, of course, the application of actual evidence to policy, leadership and practice. He likes to poke around in lies (damn lies) and statistics, uncovering the former and exploring insights from the latter.
Current or recent projects he has led include developing evidence-based resources to support the ASCL-led National Professional Qualification in Executive Leadership (NPQEL), two pilot leadership development projects one for Executive Heads and the other for heads thrust into the top job by circumstance; evaluating the Enthuse Partnership programme for STEM Learning; developing the SKEIN and the SKEIN>Momentum projects, the reappraisal of the quantitative data in a core set of meta-analyses for the Pearson School Management and Improvement Framework, an Evaluation Framework for the Education and Training Foundation, co-directing the Closing the Gap RCT project for the National College, Research Laboratory Sites (for LSIS), quantitative strands of the Building the Evidence Base project for QCDA, and learning resources design and production for the 14-19 Workforce Support programme. Other projects include the research resources underpinning the newly restructured Qualified Teacher in Learning and Skills (QTLS) framework for the Society for Education and Training, development of self-study units for college leaders and the development of a set of e-resources to support the National Mentoring and Coaching Framework,
He is a National Leader of Governance (NLG) as originally established by the National College of Teaching and Leadership and is a Trustee of a cross phase multi-academy trust (which he chaired for it's first four years). As an NLG he supports other governors in a mentoring or coaching role, conducts External Reviews of Governance and does some training and other development. He was, until a recent reorganisation, an additional governor of a further education college. He was also Teaching and Leadership Adviser (for the West Midlands) and continues to support school improvement and development in the region in a variety of ways including, currently, seven strategic school support fund (SSIF) projects .
He was Distance and e-Learning Adviser at the National Learning and Skills Council for five years developing the funding regime and supporting the National Learning Network programme. In that role he was co-author of the Council s e-learning policy. He is a Fellow of the RSA, and a member of the All Souls Group, the Association for Learning Technology and the British Educational Research Association. He represents CUREE on the Evidence Informed Policy and Practice in Europe (EIPPEE) Network, was a member of the Learning to Learn Advisory Group of the Campaign for Learning, and of the Development and Editorial Groups of the UK Education Evidence Portal (EEP). He shows up at most ResearchED events and contributes to some of them.
Before joining CUREE he was vice-principal of an FE college, a lecturer and consultant in education leadership and management and a local authority policy officer. Once, long ago, he was a telecommunications engineer and he still likes to take things (and ideas) apart to see how they work - and occasionally gets them back together again. He has an MA in Education from Sussex University and a collection of half-remembered management and engineering qualifications. In his spare time he walks up hills - Lake District, Alps etc - (often) and skis down them (occasionally). He has almost mastered driving an Aga and now needs a dog to get under his feet while using it. He is definitely, definitely going to learn to play the guitar properly!