Senior Economist Jonathan Rothwell of Gallup, presents data on employment outcomes for college graduates from different types of colleges. He also provides findings from the Gallup-USA Funds Associate Degree Graduates Survey which shows there are a number of student experiences that are highly predictive of overall life-evaluation. He cites the…

Spending by states and local school districts on school construction has increased dramatically over the last decade, not only because more and higher-quality schools are being built, but also because construction costs have increased by an unprecedented degree. Many states struggle to afford the new schools needed in local communities. The…

Schools and school systems throughout the nation are increasingly experimenting with using various instructional technologies to improve productivity and decrease costs, but evidence on both the effectiveness and the costs of education technology is limited. A recent report published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute sets out to describe "the…

Econometric cost functions have begun to appear in education adequacy cases with greater frequency. Cost functions are superficially attractive because they give the impression of objectivity, holding out the promise of scientifically estimating the cost of achieving specified levels of performance from actual data on spending. By contrast, the…

Clearly, changing postsecondary finance without a lot of new money to grease the skids will be difficult. The status quo is always easier than change, particularly change that will be objectionable to those who benefited most in the previous system. But political objections aren't the only barrier to changing funding in higher education; a…

A methodology is outlined that can be used by teaching hospitals in determining their costs of treating patients with a complex mix of diagnoses. It is not held that case mix alone explains all cost differences between teaching and nonteaching hospitals, but that factor must be isolated before examining other variables. (Author/LBH)

A survey of one-third of Pennsylvania's school district superintendents and of the firms that conducted the mandated independent audits of their districts provided data revealing variables that accounted for differences in auditing costs among districts, suggesting factors that school business officials might consider when seeking cost reductions.…

The authors describe an extension that has been made to and subsequently incorporated into the system known as Teacher Cost Models. This approach -- a dollar flow analysis -- identifies and quantifies the factors that contribute to dollar changes in the ON GRID teacher wage-bill from one year to the next. The methodology is applicable at both the…