The reduction of transaction costs is a commonly mentioned yet rarely elaborated goal for aid effectiveness in educational development. The casual use of the concept of transaction costs conceals which costs may be reduced, which costs are required and, indeed, what transaction costs actually are. Examining issues related to harmonizing the…

The common reporting of effect sizes has been an important advance in education research in recent years. However, the benchmarks used to interpret the size of these effects--as small, medium, and large--do little to inform educational administration and policy making because they do not account for program costs. The author proposes an approach…

Virtual learning is not for every student, but it's not science fiction, either. Right now in Michigan, it's being used by thousands of students in hundreds of virtual courses in urban, rural and suburban school districts. In fact, Michigan has been seen as a national leader in virtual learning. This study analyzes the financial costs and academic…

The CATO Institute's Policy Analysis "They Spend WHAT? The Real Cost of Public Schools" contends that the figures most commonly associated with spending on K-12 public education do not include all relevant expenditures. It also cites survey evidence suggesting that voters underestimate the cost of education and, when presented with a higher…

The study presented in this paper is part of the National Institute of Education's effort to study federally sponsored compensatory education programs through demonstration projects. One aspect of the study of demonstration projects concerns the cost associated with the changes in allocation procedures and concentration levels which result from…

This discussion has outlined the role played by program costs in the three-stage policy process--policy formulation, policy implementation, and policy evaluation. It has described both the relevance and a framework for education policy evaluation. (Author/IRT)

The Center for the Study of Evaluation's (CSE) Test Use Project (1979) has gathered information that is nationally representative and illustrative of the entire range of tests being administered. The primary intention of this phase of the ongoing study is to identify the direct and indirect costs of testing. The four papers included here offer…

The current paradox between the increasing interest in the utilization of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and the decreasing financial support from the Federal Government is briefly surveyed in the introduction of this annotated bibliography. The author also discusses the major problems that are now prevalent in CAI utilization: the lack of…

A description of the 1974-75 Michigan Cost-Effectiveness Study and its findings is provided in this study. The present study is restricted to compensatory education reading programs. Its purpose is the development of the analytical techniques reflected in the cost-effectiveness model. A purpose of the study is the investigation of the direction of…

In this paper, the authors describe a cost analysis framework and approach that can be easily understood by a range of relevant audiences and that has been successfully used to estimate the costs of a range of professional development initiatives. The paper illustrate its use by drawing on the authors' experience applying the framework in three…

The goal of this study was to determine the level of educational expenditure necessary to make ample provision for the education of all students, providing all students with the skills to meet long-term academic standards, pursue additional learning beyond high school, and become productive citizens and contributing members of society. This study…

This report details a benefit-cost analysis of the Perry Preschool program and describes the program's long-term effects. Conducted since 1962, research on the Perry Preschool program constitutes one of the strongest and best-known sources of support for the long-term efficacy of early intervention with disadvantaged children. The Perry Project…

The future of American schools depends in large part on their openness to innovations in instructional patterns, in school organization, in education for teachers and for deprived minorities, and in their use of educational technology. Basic and applied research are needed to determine useful innovation. Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness…

One of the main strategies for achieving lifelong learning objectives in Denmark has been to steadily shore up and improve the efficiency of the institutional arrangements for adult learning and to progressively strengthen the arrangements for financing it. Because there has been no attempt to create totally new structures or programs, the trends…

This book contains nine papers on current issues and new agendas in workplace learning in Australia. The first paper, "A New Focus on Workplace Learning Research" (David Boud), examines the rise of interest in and conceptions of workplace learning. The next three papers focus on different conceptions of workplace learning: "Fusing…