Community colleges are under pressure to increase completion rates, prepare students for the workplace, and contain costs. Colleges need to know the financial implications of what are often perceived as routine decisions: course scheduling, program offerings, and the provision of support services. This chapter presents a methodology for estimating…

Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) is a well-documented, valuable, and integral part of agricultural education programs (Bryant, 2003; Cheek, Arrington, Carter, & Randall, 1994; Deyoe, 1953; Dyer & Osborne, 1996; Moore, 1988; Roberts & Harlin, 2007). Cole and Connell (1993) found that there was little research regarding the…

Very little of the professional development literature identifies its costs. Many say good professional development is expensive, but what is meant by expensive, and if so, expensive relative to what? This article shows that effective professional development is not expensive relative to overall spending and that its key elements and their costs…

The value of a program can be understood as referring not only to outcomes, but also to how those outcomes compare to the types and amounts of resources expended to produce the outcomes. Major potential mistakes and biases in assessing the worth of resources consumed, as well as the value of outcomes produced, are explored. Most of these occur…

Almost 7 million young Americans (age 16-24) are insufficiently attached to school or work. Based on conservative estimates, we can generate over $1 billion just by helping a mere 0.1 percent earn a high school credential and complete their first year of college through Back on Track Designs. This brief lays out the cost of setting up these GED-…

One of the standard labor practices of research universities is to hire, pay, and promote faculty members on the basis of the research they produce. In the humanities, professors write books and articles and universities reward them accordingly. The system amounts to a considerable expenditure for the institution and a significant portion of…

The aim of this study is to examine the costs and benefits of undertaking adult education courses from the perspective of the individual, using three different case studies. This will give a snapshot of the benefits and the types of costs incurred by three adult learners. Three individuals were contacted by Aontas and were asked if they would be…

In this article, we discuss the development of online courses in higher education in terms of the in- structional quality and economic costs. In our conceptual analysis, we point out problems in developing online courses with sufficient quality due to limited funds being made available for online course development. Moreover, economic costs exist…

Response to a recent article in this journal by Ewald and Kiker. Provides a costing methodology based on a similar application of input-output theory but one that is completely general with regard to possible program interrelationships. (Author/JH)

As part of the overall education plans for Fort Lincoln New Town (FLNT) an automated school cost model was developed. Chapter 1 overviews the FLNT model's features and sets its operational context, while chapter 2 discusses the model in detail. The appendices provide model inputs and cost calculations, names of approximately 500 inputs used in the…

By making explicit the implicit assumptions about program costs and benefits, resource allocation in a nonprofit organization could be simplified. A rational scheme for implementing such a program might begin by using detailed interviews with program administrators to determine input and output scales. Following this, respondents could choose…

The author combined cost-benefit analysis with systems analysis, using the Optner model, to analyze the vocational education program in Danbury, Connecticut (a demonstration city), in 1969-70 and 1970-71. Background information on the community and the program's development are related; the analysis is presented in summary, illustrated by figures,…

This paper presents a brief final report of the system and products of the cost-effectiveness/benefit analysis project conducted at Indiana University which combined the two concepts of cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis into a cost-effectiveness/benefit analysis model for postsecondary vocational programs. The project also developed…

Reviews size economies research and concludes, among other things, that the cost curve is usually U-shaped, but all findings must be applied cautiously and with full recognition of the unique characteristics of each place. (Author/JM)

Cost effectiveness of on-the-job training (OJT) can be determined by measures of effectiveness and by cost assessing the relationship between output and input. Defining effectiveness to be a measure of what an activity produces leaves two main groups of problems unresolved: hierarchies of effectiveness and multiple outcomes. The most significant…