Individual decision-making is often expressed through some combination of return or benefit within a context of risk assessment and assumption. Risk is generally defined as variability or chance of loss. Individuals are typically risk averse, where they require a greater benefit for each unit of risk in a decision. Students apply risk assessment…

Conducting high-quality overviews of reviews (OoR) is time-consuming. Because the quality of systematic reviews (SRs) varies, it is necessary to critically appraise SRs when conducting an OoR. A well-established appraisal tool is A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) 2, which takes about 15-32 min per application. To save time,…

This chapter reviews the extensive literature to date on CCTs for education. Section 2 provides background on the origins and expansion of CCTs globally, and describes basic design features and variation in characteristics across programs. Section 3 presents a theory of change and an economic household decision-making model highlighting key…

In the article "Understanding Writer Center Use among Community College Students," Christina Savarese addresses the reasons students use the writing center, understanding those reasons, and using them to identify ways the writing center administrators and tutors can better serve their student population. Additional research findings…

Return on investment (ROI) has become part of the policymaking toolkit, particularly pertinent for activities like school-based career guidance deemed optional by some policymakers. There are institutions supporting ideal ROI methods alongside an academic critique, but little research on how ROI has been applied in practice in a guidance setting.…

The goal of this brief is to provide school district and school staff with tools to help make more effective and efficient use of resources, particularly American Rescue Plan ESSER III funding. ESSER III funding offers districts and schools an opportunity to not only support their immediate needs of safely reopening schools to in-person…

In recent years, academic return on investment (A-ROI) has gained growing attention from policy makers as well as education practitioners and stakeholders as a tool to drive how limited financial resources are used to improve student achievement. In this series, we discuss five basic issues around using A-ROI for informing and improving resource…

This paper aims to determine what motivates small firms to offer apprenticeship training. The current state of research provides various indications. While research focusing on the specificity of small firms identifies the important role of the owner and their personality, values, attitudes and experiences, economic research mainly refers to the…

Social return on investment (SROI), an evaluation method that compares monetized social value generated to costs invested, is in ascendance. Conceptually akin to cost-benefit analysis, it shares some of its challenges; however, these are heightened due to the expressed promise of using SROI to compare programs and inform philanthropic and public…

Involvement in honors programs provides students an opportunity to grow academically, connect with like-minded peers, and reap tangible and intangible benefits. Understanding the motivations driving this involvement is a crucial task for honors program administrators and faculty alike as different motivations may influence how students engage and…

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be considered an important tool for professionals to reskill and upskill as well as a cost-efficient way to stay relevant. However, evidence-based research is still needed to identify why specific categories of people, especially professionals, take paid MOOCs. The paper aims to analyze the factors that…

Institutional repositories have not lived up to their potential. Faculty consider preparing and submitting works to repositories onerous, they worry about making works freely available, and they fail to see benefits of submitting works to repositories. Nevertheless, opportunities to increase repository submissions exist, and IRs offer campuses a…

Unparalleled changes in dietetics education are underway with a new competency-based model and graduate degree requirements. This two-phase mixed methods study explored dietetics directors' perceptions of costs and benefits to implement the new model. First, e-Delphi participants identified 34 cost and 22 benefit items, which were then used to…

In the United States, 44.7 million individuals carry student loan debt (Bustamante, 2020). Female students borrow money at higher rates than males (Qian & Fan, 2021). First-generation students borrow more than students whose parents attended college (Redford & Hoyer, 2017). Therefore, female first-generation students carry the highest…

The field of special education has become increasingly interested in and concerned about the costs associated with delivering programs and services to students. Yet, to date, there has been relatively limited data on the costs or return on investment of special education services and preventive interventions. There is an opportunity to learn from…