Search

Multiple measures assessment (MMA) has gained considerable momentum over the past decade as an alternative to traditional test-based procedures for placing incoming students into developmental or college-level coursework in math and English at broad-access colleges. Compared to standardized tests, which measure student performance at a single point in time, MMA (which often emphasizes high school GPA as a measure) provides a more holistic picture of students' academic preparation. Despite positive impacts on student outcomes that have been found by recent research on MMA, questions remain about whether the positive effects of MMA are sustained over time. This study--a follow-up to prior research using the same sample of students--employs a randomized controlled trial to investigate whether algorithmic MMA placement used at seven State University of New York (SUNY) community colleges led to better student outcomes, for up to four and a half years after randomization, than a system based on test scores alone. Nearly 13,000 incoming students who arrived at the seven colleges in fall 2016, spring 2017, and fall 2017 took placement tests and were randomly assigned to be placed using either the status quo method (business-as-usual group) or the alternative, algorithmic MMA method (program group). Using this sample, we estimate the overall treatment effects on placement into, enrollment in, and completion of college-level math and English as well as effects on other outcomes. We conduct similar analyses on race/ethnicity, Pell recipient status, and gender subgroups. We also descriptively examine the proportion of program group students who were bumped up (i.e., their placement changed from a developmental course placement to a college-level course placement) and bumped down (i.e., their placement changed from a college-level course placement to a developmental course placement) by the MMA algorithm, and we perform a cost-effectiveness analysis. We find that the MMA method used at the colleges improved access to and success in college-level courses and that lower cut scores in English rather than math are associated with larger and longer lasting impacts on completion of college-level coursework. While MMA improved outcomes among student subgroups, it had little to no impact on gaps in outcomes between subgroups. We also find that bumped-up students had substantially better outcomes in both math and English, while bumped-down students had substantially worse outcomes. Our results suggest that increased access to college-level courses is the driving factor in the positive outcomes experienced by program group students and that placement into standalone developmental courses can have detrimental effects on student outcomes. In the discussion of the study's results, we make recommendations for adopting MMA at colleges. Implemented together with other initiatives to support students, MMA can be a first step on the path to success for incoming students. [For the accompanying research brief, see ED632528.]

Reading has been at the forefront of early-grade educational interventions, but addressing the educational needs of students in math early on is also critical given that early gaps in math skills widen further over the course of schooling. In this study, we examine the effects of Kentucky's Math Achievement Fund -- a unique state-level program that combines targeted interventions, peer-coaching, and close collaboration among teachers to improve math achievement in grades K-3 -- on student outcomes and the costs associated with this policy. We find significant positive effects of the program not only on math achievement, but also on test scores in reading and non-test outcomes including student attendance and disciplinary incidents. The benefits exist across racial/ethnic groups and students from different socioeconomic statuses, and they are slightly higher for racial minorities. These findings, along with the cost estimate of the program, suggest that this program could provide a cost-effective blueprint to address the educational needs of students in math in early grades.

India has the second largest higher education system in terms of institutions worldwide, despite having only 26.3% Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER), including vocational education. It aspires to achieve a target of 50% GER by 2035. It means it would require a larger number of higher education institutions (HEIs), public and private, in addition to huge fiscal resources. At present about 75% of the HEIs are privately managed with about 66% of student enrolment. Though there is no provision of for-profit higher education institutions in India, many non-profit private HEIs are actually working as for-profit. They are growing fast and are visible too. Therefore, it is high time now to think seriously about the pros and cons, causes and consequences of for-profit and nonprofit private HEIs in India. India provides a big market for non-profit and for-profit higher education to domestic and foreign stakeholders. Already 160 foreign universities are working in collaboration with public or private limited companies in India. This essay provides an analysis of issues related to for-profit and nonprofit HEIs, including desirability, size, funding, transparency, accountability, quality, feasibility and sustainability, government policies, regulation, foreign collaborations, private investments, and incentives. The methodology adopted is analytical, comparative, and empirical.

This paper studies the causal impacts of public universities on the outcomes of their marginally admitted students. I use administrative admission records spanning all 35 public universities in Texas, which collectively enroll 10 percent of American public university students, to systematically identify and employ decentralized cutoffs in SAT/ACT scores that generate discontinuities in admission and enrollment. The typical marginally admitted student completes an additional year of education in the four-year sector, is 12 percentage points more likely to earn a bachelor's degree, and eventually earns 5-10 percent more than their marginally rejected but otherwise identical counterpart. Marginally admitted students pay no additional tuition costs thanks to offsetting grant aid; cost-benefit calculations show internal rates of return of 19-23 percent for the marginal students themselves, 10-12 percent for society (which must pay for the additional education), and 3-4 percent for the government budget. Finally, I develop a method to disentangle separate effects for students on the extensive margin of the four-year sector versus those who would fall back to another four-year school if rejected. Substantially larger extensive margin effects drive the results.

Climate change and natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, and geopolitical shocks have increasingly disrupted school education around the world in recent years. Whether leading to school closures, school destructions or repeated interruptions in students' learning experiences, these external shocks have translated into lost learning opportunities for students. In this context, education systems face heightened pressure to become ever more resilient, enhance the efficiency of public spending and address emerging learning gaps. This working paper highlights key education strategies for helping students catch up on lost learning opportunities and bridge learning gaps, based on a review of research and policy evidence from OECD and non-OECD countries. It examines a range of academic strategies to address learning gaps, including: (1) adapting instructional strategies and pedagogies to individual needs; (2) extending and adapting the time of instruction; and (3) providing curricular flexibility and enabling fluid learning pathways within the school system. It provides research evidence on the effectiveness of such strategies, together with examples of their large-scale implementation and cost-effectiveness considerations. While this paper presents programmes of general interest for all countries, a separate policy brief targets learning recovery strategies for students in Ukraine.

Developed by the City University of New York (CUNY), the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) is a comprehensive program that provides students with up to three years of financial and academic support and other services. In return, students are expected to enroll in classes full time and participate in essential program services. An earlier experimental evaluation found that ASAP nearly doubled graduation rates three years after students entered the study. This paper summarizes the effects on education and financial aid outcomes over an eight-year follow-up period, or five years after the end of program services. This paper also presents the educational investment in students associated with providing these services and any educational investment in students from the CUNY community colleges after the program services were no longer provided. Through the eight-year follow-up period, ASAP's effects on associate's degree receipt persisted, indicating that the program not only helped students graduate faster, but also helped some students who would have never graduated without the program earn a degree. ASAP also led to a significant increase in the amount of financial aid students received through federal and state grants. The net cost (the difference between the total program group costs and the total control group costs) averaged $13,838 per program group member over eight years. CUNY spent, on average, an additional $9,162 per degree earned for students offered ASAP, compared with the control group students over the eight-year follow-up period. The findings also show that the program resulted in increased financial aid from the Pell Grant Program and the New York State Tuition Assistance Program, and reduced the grant dollars these programs invested per degree earned.

This paper evaluates the academic impact of a growth-mindset intervention on students starting the secondary level in public schools in urban Peru. ¡Expande tu Mente! is a 90-minute school session aimed at instilling the notion that a person's own intelligence is malleable. Students in schools randomly assigned to treatment showed a small improvement in math test scores and educational expectations, with a large and sustained impact in test scores among students outside the capital city. At a cost of $0.20 per pupil, ¡Expande tu Mente! was highly cost-effective. The results show the potential that brief growth-mindset interventions have for developing countries. [This paper is a product of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice.]

This paper estimates private and social returns to investment in education in Azerbaijan, using the 2015 Azerbaijan Monitoring Survey for Social Welfare. The private rate of return to education is 6 percent; this is the first estimate of returns to schooling in Azerbaijan since 1995. The returns to schooling are 6 percent for men and 8 percent for women, even controlling for selection. In addition, the paper estimates the returns for higher education; for this level, the rate of return is 9 percent. Finally, using the full discount method, the private rate of return to tertiary education is 9 percent, and the social rate of return is 8 percent. One policy implication is to re-examine the funding of higher education and for its expansion. [This paper is a product of the Education Global Practice.]

This paper presents new benefit-cost estimates for the Tulsa universal preschool program. These calculations are based on estimated effects from previous papers of Tulsa pre-K on high school graduation rates and college attendance rates of students who were enrolled in kindergarten in Tulsa Public Schools in the fall of 2006. In this paper, educational effects from these prior papers are used to infer lifetime earnings effects and are compared with program costs. Our conservative estimates of earnings effects suggest that per pre-K participant, the present value of earnings effects in 2021 dollars is $25,533, compared with program costs of $9,628, for a benefit-cost ratio of 2.65. Compared to prior benefit-cost studies of Tulsa pre-K, this benefit-cost ratio is below what was predicted from Tulsa pre-K's estimated effects on kindergarten test scores, but above what was predicted from Tulsa pre-K's estimated effects on grade retention by ninth grade. This fading and recovery of predicted pre-K effects as children go through K-12 and then enter adulthood is consistent with prior research. It attests to the importance of the "soft skill" effects of pre-K and reminds us that short-term studies of pre-K provide useful information for public-policy decisions.

STEP Forward was a voluntary program in San Francisco that aimed to connect low-income job seekers to the labor market by using public funds to temporarily subsidize individuals' wages, known as subsidized employment, with the goal of ultimately increasing permanent unsubsidized employment among this population. STEP Forward offered job seekers opportunities to interview for jobs with private sector employers at weekly job fairs and offered employers temporary wage subsidies if they hired disadvantaged job seekers whom they might not otherwise hire. To test the effectiveness of this strategy and to learn about its costs, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funded a random assignment evaluation of STEP Forward, in which individuals were randomly assigned to a program group that had access to STEP Forward services or to a control group that did not have access to STEP Forward services but could receive other services in the community. A total of 837 adults were enrolled into the STEP Forward study between November 2012 and March 2015. In the first year after random assignment when program group members who were placed in subsidized employment were still receiving subsidized wages, program group members were more likely than control group members to have been employed and had higher average earnings. Impacts on earnings continued into the fourth year, well after the subsidies had ended. This paper presents the one-year costs of STEP Forward, including program services such as job-readiness services and the subsidized portion of wages provided to program group members. It also presents the costs of non-STEP Forward services available to both program group and control group members, which included education, training, and job skills services. This evaluation is part of a larger demonstration called the Subsidized and Transitional Employment Demonstration (STED). In addition to STEP Forward, STED includes random assignment evaluations of six other subsidized employment strategies around the country.

The Minnesota Subsidized and Transitional Employment Demonstration (MSTED) is testing the effectiveness of subsidized employment for individuals enrolled in the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), Minnesota's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, who were unable to find employment after participating in the state's existing welfare-to-work program. To learn about the program's effects and costs, the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funded a random assignment evaluation of MSTED, in which individuals were randomly assigned to a program group that had access to MSTED services or to a control group that did not have access to MSTED services but could receive other welfare-to-work services. The purpose of the cost study is to determine what it cost to provide MSTED services to a single program group member once MSTED had reached a steady state of operation. The analysis estimates the costs per sample member in three categories: (1) MSTED costs; (2) MFIP costs; and (3) education and training costs. In the first year after random assignment when program group members who had been placed in subsidized employment were still receiving subsidized wages, program group members were more likely than control group members to have been employed. However, by the end of the second year after random assignment when subsidies had ended, program and control group members were employed at similar levels. This study is part of a larger demonstration funded by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, called the Subsidized and Transitional Employment Demonstration (STED), which is testing various subsidized employment strategies in several locations across the country.

This article explores the efficacy and cost effectiveness of New Labour's skills-based policies to help low paid workers adjust to the pressures generated by globalisation, of which the leading example was Train to Gain (T2G). It also analyses the more general issue of how, why and under what circumstances education, training and skills can help imbue low paid workers with greater bargaining power within the labour market.

Access to books is key to learning to read and sustaining a love of reading. Yet many low- and middle-income countries struggle to provide their students with reading materials of sufficient quality and quantity. Since 2008, RTI International has provided technical assistance in early reading assessment and instruction to ministries of education in dozens of low- and middle-income countries. The central objective of many of these programs has been to improve learning outcomes, in particular reading, for students in the early grades of primary school. Under these programs, RTI has partnered with ministry staff to produce and distribute evidence-based instructional materials at a regional or national scale, in quantities that increase the likelihood that children will have ample opportunities to practice reading skills, and at a cost that can be sustained in the long term by the education system. In this paper, we seek to capture the practices RTI has developed and refined over the last decade, particularly in response to the challenges inherent in contexts with high linguistic diversity and low operational capacity for producing and distributing instructional materials. These practices constitute our approach to developing and producing instructional materials for early grade literacy. We also touch upon effective planning for printing and distribution procurement, but we do not consider the printing and distribution processes in depth in this paper. We expect this volume will be useful for donors, policy makers, and practitioners interested in improving access to cost-effective, high-quality teaching and learning materials for the early grades.

In low-income countries, private schools are perceived as superior alternatives to the public sector, often improving achievement at a fraction of the cost. It is unclear whether private schools are as effective in middle-income countries where the public sector has relatively more resources. To address this gap, this paper takes advantage of lottery-based admissions in first grade for a Mexico City private school that targets and subsidizes attendance for low-income children. Over three years, selected students via lottery scored 0.21 standard deviation higher than those not selected in literacy tests, corresponding to a normalized gain of one-half of a grade level every two years. Lottery winners also statistically outperformed those not selected in math, but the gains were more modest. Relative to the control group, parents of selected students were more satisfied with their school and had higher educational expectations for their children. Unlike findings from low-income countries, these gains came at increased cost--twice as much on a per pupil basis relative to public schools. Additional analyses indicate gains made by the lowest income students in the sample help explain the school's impact. This suggests private schools could bring down persistent achievement gaps in these countries, but puts into question the validity of implementation at scale. [This paper is a product of the Education Global Practice.]

Although writing is well established as a high-impact educational practice, scaling that practice is challenging. Writing is a mode of engaged learning, and teaching it requires providing careful attention informed by expertise. These conditions are labor-intensive and expensive, even as public universities are hardly awash in funds. Writing skills develop over time as a function of encountering challenges and being coached on addressing them. What counts as "good" writing varies according to context, target readership, and purpose. Students need to build a repertory of strategies and experiences, along with the executive functions to know when to access what. They acquire this repertory by writing: doing it, not simply being told about it, and receiving feedback and advice. Technologies cannot currently or foreseeably provide feedback of sufficient quality to solve problems of scale. Writing Across the Curriculum programs can supplement first year writing courses, even replace some of them--but only if accompanied by sustained professional development that includes thorough knowledge of effective writing pedagogies, knowledge bolstered by existing research, theory, and best practices. New faculty models that feature full-time, benefited continuing lecturers or teaching professors exist at many universities, private and public; these models are more cost-effective than tenure-line faculty owing to enrollments. Even when they're more expensive than adjuncts, these models' return in quality is profound. The bottom line is that, even with cost ceilings, it's possible to scale quality writing instruction, however incrementally. At least minimally, this requires faculty writing specialists who can work directly with disciplinary faculty and who can ensure that anyone teaching writing is doing so in well-designed courses, using effective and efficient pedagogies. Writing centers are vital in supporting these efforts. Permanent, professional writing faculties, in new kinds of faculty roles, offer the greatest promise, albeit at greater costs.

We demonstrate the social efficiency of investing in high-quality early childhood education using newly collected data from the HighScope Perry Preschool Project. The data analyzed are the longest follow-up of any randomized early childhood education program. Annual observations of participant outcomes up to midlife allow us to provide a cost-benefit analysis without relying on forecasts. Adult outcomes on the participants' children and siblings allow us to quantify spillover benefits. The program generates a benefit-cost ratio of 6.0 (p-value = 0.03). Spillover benefits increase this ratio to 7.5 (p-value = 0.00).

In low- and middle-income countries, institutions of higher education are turning to online models of instruction to reduce costs and broaden their educational reach. While a growing body of causal research can speak to the effectiveness of online models in the United States, there is little rigorous evidence about the use of online models in lower income countries. To fill this gap in the research, I use a randomized design to examine the effectiveness of a blended model in undergraduate STEM courses in Mongolia. On average, students assigned to the online instructional format withdraw from courses at a higher rate; this finding is not observed among the highest achieving students, suggesting lower-ability students may encounter barriers to persistence under new online learning models. Nevertheless, overall course performance is equivalent between treatment and control, suggesting the online model may be as effective as face-to-face instruction at a lower cost.

Economic information may close aspiration disparities for postsecondary education across socio-economic, ethnic and partisan divides. In 2017, we estimated impacts of information on such disparities by means of a survey experiment administered to a nationally representative sample of 4,214 adults. A baseline group was asked whether they preferred a four-year degree, a two-year degree, or no further education for their oldest child under the age of eighteen (or on the option they would prefer if they had one). Before three other randomly selected segments of our sample were asked the same question, they were given either information about (1) both net costs and returns; (2) net costs; or (3) returns to a two-year and four-year degree. Information about both costs and returns did not reduce SES disparities but did affect ethnic and partisan divides. The findings suggest that reductions in socioeconomic inequalities in educational opportunity will require more than simple changes in the dissemination of information aimed at altering economic cost-benefit calculations. Sustained effort that mitigates deeper-seated cultural and social barriers seems necessary.

Stackable credentials--sequential postsecondary awards that allow individuals to progress on a career path--have been suggested as a way to enhance the labor market prospects of middle-skill workers. Yet, thus far, little evidence has been provided on the economic value of these credentials. Here, we report a series of estimates on the association between stackable credentials and earnings. We use national, survey, and college-system-level datasets. A significant body of evidence indicates that the labor market returns to certificates--along with those to college degrees--are positive. But our estimates of stackable credentials show only weakly positive and inconsistent gains from these award combinations. Generally, these estimates are indistinguishable from the returns to only one postsecondary credential. There is no clear evidence of how earnings vary across types of stack--progressive, supplemental, or independent--or student characteristics. However, estimated earnings gains from stackable credentials may be imprecise. Few college students stack awards, the motives for stacking are unknown, and notably, the number of stacked awards depends on whether general vocational awards are included. Future research should examine why students stack awards and how they can choose combinations of awards that maximize their earnings gains from stacking.

Does extra financial aid for the summer lead to gains in completion and earnings? Despite being the largest source of financial aid to low-income college students, the traditional Pell Grant has had one major limitation: if students enroll in two semesters full-time, they will not have any tuition support for the summer term of the same academic year. The year-round Pell (YRP) was implemented in the academic years 2009-10 and 2010-11 to provide a second Pell Grant to students who enrolled in more than 24 credits prior to the third semester and in at least 6 credits during the summer term. This paper employs a difference-in-difference approach to examine the credit, credential completion, and labor market outcomes resulting from the YRP using a state administrative dataset from a community college system. The study finds that for each $1,000 of YRP grant funding per YRP eligible student, the likelihood of summer enrollment among YRP eligible students increases by 27 percentage points and the likelihood of associate degree completion increases by 2.2 percentage points, with these gains primarily benefitting adult students who enrolled at age 20 or above. Given that the federal government is currently reinstating the YRP, this research is timely in providing insight into the efficacy of the YRP.

A 1966 University of California academic plan estimated that future enrollments would soar to well over 200,000 before leveling off, and that by 1975 student demand would require two more UC campuses in addition to the ones opened a few years earlier at Santa Cruz, Irvine, and San Diego. The 1970 US census brought these stratospheric assumptions down to earth. Its projections of declining numbers of college-age students into the next decade and beyond, combined with the shock of unfavorable academic market and budgetary trends, became the starting point for an ambitious new UC planning endeavor. The intent was to improve long-range decision-making on the size, quality, and academic balance of the University. The strategy was to ensure that planning led budgeting; that campus academic plans were systematically reviewed at the university-wide and Regental level; and that fiscal realities disciplined planning at all levels. Two UC presidents led this experiment in multi-campus system planning. Charles J. Hitch (1968-1975) had revolutionized planning and budgeting at Robert S. McNamara's Department of Defense before coming to UC. David S. Saxon (1975-1983) brought a deep knowledge of the University and its culture gained through long experience as a faculty and administrative leader at UCLA. Despite differences in background, perspective, and approach, both shared the same goal: to create a truly university-wide plan that harmonized campus ambitions with the broader aims of the University as a whole and with the coming constraints on growth. This paper considers the context, assumptions, and forces that shaped, and then reshaped, the planning directions UC chose at the end of the golden age of the 1960s. A bibliography is included.

According to UNESCO, one-third of the world's youths are victims of bullying, which deteriorates academic performance and mental health, and increases suicide ideation and the risk of committing suicide. This paper analyzes a four-month parent-directed intervention designed to foster empathy in middle schoolers in China. Our implementation and evaluation study enrolled 2,246 seventh and eighth graders and their parents, whom we assigned, at the classroom level, to the control or intervention condition randomly. We measured, before and after the intervention, parental investments, children's empathy, and self-reported bullying perpetration and victimization incidents. Our analyses show that the intervention increased investments and empathy and reduced bullying incidents. In addition, we measured costs and found that it costs $12.50 for our intervention to reduce one bullying incident. Our study offers a scalable and low-cost strategy that can inform public policy on bullying prevention in other similar settings.

The paper evaluates math performance at four high-need middle schools during a four-year intervention, which was designed to help math teachers diagnose students' areas of need and to design lesson plans responsive to those needs. Before the intervention began, the researchers pre-selected four comparison schools by matching based on achievement and also on demographics. A difference-in-difference analysis finds a significant increase of about 0.11 standard deviation in test scores per year for students in the program schools. Supplementary event study and synthetic control analyses to detect year-by-year effects lack precision but are weakly suggestive of a smaller impact in year 1 than later years. A cost analysis considers the affordability of extending similar programs.

A vast research literature is devoted to analyzing causes of and potential remedies for early-career teacher attrition. However, much less attention has been paid to late-career attrition among experienced teachers, which is driven primarily by retirement plan incentives. Although there is some variation across states, it is generally the case that late-career teachers retire at much younger ages than their professional counterparts. Moreover, given the well-documented returns to teaching experience, late-career exits are on average more costly to students in K-12 schools than early-career exits. This study uses structural estimates from a dynamic retirement model to simulate the effect of targeted retention bonuses for senior teachers rated as effective or teaching in high-need fields. While the cost per incremental year of instruction is expensive in the short run, it declines over time. Moreover, because labor supply decisions are forward-looking, a temporary bonus has much smaller effects than a permanent one. These findings highlight the value of stability in policies aimed at extending teachers' careers. Overall our results suggest that carefully-targeted retention bonuses can be useful tool in raising the quality of the teaching workforce and closing achievement gaps.

We estimate the equilibrium effects of a public-school grant program administered through school councils in Pakistani villages with multiple public and private schools and clearly defined catchment boundaries. The program was randomized at the village-level, allowing us to estimate its causal impact on the market. Four years after the start of the program, test scores were 0.2 sd higher in public schools. We find evidence of an education multiplier: test scores in private schools were also 0.2 sd higher in treated markets. Consistent with standard models of product differentiation, the education multiplier is greater for those private schools that faced a greater threat to their market power. Accounting for private sector responses increases the program's cost-effectiveness by 85% and affects how a policymaker would target spending. Given that markets with several public and private schools are now pervasive in low- and middle-income countries, prudent policy requires us to account for private sector responses to public policy, both in their design and in their evaluation. [Funding for this report was provided from the Research on Improving Systems in Education program, funded by UK Aid.]

Inequalities do not end once students enter higher education. Yet, the majority of papers on the effectiveness of higher education aid examine its impact on college enrolment. In this paper, we provide evidence on the causal impact of means-tested but otherwise unconditional financial aid on the outcomes of students who have already enrolled in college. To do so, we exploit a unique non-salient financial aid program which varies both across and within institutions, and for which eligibility is a highly non-linear function of parental income. Using student-level administrative data collected from 9 English universities, we study the effects of aid receipt on college completion rates, annual course scores, and degree quality. Our findings suggest that each £1,000 of financial aid awarded increases the chances of gaining a good degree by around 3.7 percentage points, driven by increases in annual rates of completion and course scores. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre for Economic Performance's Education and Skills Programme.]

Asthma is the leading chronic health condition among children in the United States and a major cause of childhood disability. It also disproportionately affects low-income and racial and ethnic minorities. Although a wide range of interventions have been implemented to improve asthma-related outcomes among socioeconomically disadvantaged and minority children, disparities persist. This paper, which was commissioned by the JPB Foundation and conducted by MDRC in partnership with the National Academy for State Health Policy, standardizes and compares effects from rigorous evaluations across three main types of interventions: those that focus on improving education and self-management, those that focus on addressing remediation of the conditions that trigger asthma in the home environment, and those that focus on improving health care provider practice. While prior reviews have summarized findings for each intervention type, this review systematically compares findings across a range of outcomes and a spectrum of different approaches to addressing childhood asthma, drawing from about 30 independent studies and earlier published reviews. In addition, the paper includes case studies of various local programs and state-level policy initiatives to illuminate current efforts to address childhood asthma in low-income communities and barriers faced in sustaining asthma programs. Key findings include: (1) Providing education on how to manage asthma is fundamental to improving outcomes, but it may not be enough to alleviate disparities in asthma management; (2) Some local programs are clearly bridging informational gaps among low-income families and are helping them maintain a safe home environment for their children with asthma; (3) The health care benefits of interventions that go beyond education are unclear; (4) Barriers to medication management are complex and medication adherence is difficult to influence; and (5) The role of the state, and the Medicaid program in particular, is relevant for the financing and sustainability of asthma programs for low-income children. Although the long-run sustainability of some of the programs highlighted in this report is uncertain, what is clear is that combating the disparities in the prevalence of asthma among different populations will require more than an agreement on standard asthma management practices within the medical community. The following are appended: (1) Methodology for Literature Review; (2) Summaries of Asthma Studies; (3) Detailed Case Studies of Local Asthma Programs; and (4) Detailed State-Based Case Studies. [This working paper was written with Felicia Heider, Carrie Hanlon, and Taylor Kniffin.]

This study investigated how firms in Germany and Australia compare when dealing with the institutional arrangements for apprenticeship training in their countries, with particular attention given to factors which may impact on their training motivation. Apprenticeships are a well-established pathway to employment across many countries, with a particularly long and enduring history in Germany and Australia. Apprenticeships are characterised by a tripartite relationship between employer, apprentice, and training organisation. The available international literature suggests that the institutional framework for training in a country is an important determinant of a firm's motivation to provide training, and it influences their willingness to bear (at least part) of the training costs. Key messages from this study are: (1) Employers of trades' apprentices in both Germany and Australia appear to bear substantial costs for training their apprentices; (2) Institutional frameworks in Germany foster an investment model, a model which emphasises the benefits of employing apprentices after training, while in Australia some firms adopt more of a production (that is, substitution for "regular" workers) model of apprenticeship training, although there is a relatively strong investment motivation for trade firms in Australia; (3) For firms focused on the short-term costs and benefits of training, the withdrawal of some national government incentive payments in Australia has led to a weaker commitment to training, most evident in non-trade trainee places being offered; and (4) By contrast, firms training in trade occupations appear to be more investment-oriented and are more inclined to continue training, or employ an apprentice after training, even with the withdrawal of incentives. Tables and figures are appended.

The impacts and cost-effectiveness of adult basic education (ABE) in Sub-Saharan Africa were examined in a review of the new generation of ABE programs in the region. African experts and other international resource persons examined documentation from recent adult literacy, numeracy, and other educational programs targeted toward individuals over the age of 15 years. The study revealed evidence of the following impacts of new-generation ABE programs: (1) after developing literacy skills, women were better able to support their children; (2) participants were empowered to move from being passive subjects to active citizens; (3) participants developed more effective oral and written communication skills; (4) participants with new literacy skills were healthier and raised healthier children; and (5) many participants found more productive livelihoods. The study confirmed the validity of the proposition that many of the region's new-generation ABE programs have been able to successfully address the following criticisms of ABE: (1) weak internal efficiency; (2) poor retention of literacy skills; (3) costs that are too high in relation to outcomes; and (4) adults being too old to learn. The study yielded evidence validating the proposition that ABE programs in Sub-Saharan Africa deserve strong support from the international community. (68 references) (MN)

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 comparative statics and empirical predictions for the introduction of an education CCT program. Section 4 discusses key methodological challenges in evaluating the impacts of education CCTs. Section 5 integrates and updates the extensive evidence to date on the impacts of education CCTs on various outcome domains over the life cycle, and provides the most comprehensive view to date on learning impacts by meta-analyzing new evidence from more than 30 studies--substantially more than prior reviews of the literature. Section 6 reviews the evidence on indirect and general equilibrium effects. Section 7 presents a simple model of costs commonly used in the literature, which we extend to analyze cost-effectiveness for a subset of programs. Section 8 concludes and highlights open questions for future research.

This paper reviews current research on the effectiveness of interventions and reforms that seek to improve the math preparedness and success of high school students entering college. Based on gaps in the research knowledge, it also provides recommendations for further inquiry in particular areas. The studies reviewed here are selected from research conducted by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) and the National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR), from searches of the Education Full Text database for peer-reviewed articles, and from searches of Google Scholar for high-quality reports. The two key criteria for inclusion in the review are that (1) the study in question focuses on (a) an early assessment program in math; (b) a math bridge, boot camp, or brush-up; (c) a reform of developmental math; or (d) improvements to math instruction; and that (2) at least one of the study's outcomes is related to changes in math or college performance. To evaluate the evidence, I report on each study's design and findings. I also calculate each intervention's effect size and categorize the effect size to compare impacts across the studies under review. Overall, the evidence is limited, but some of the interventions and reforms appear promising. The evidence on early assessment is minimal. The evidence on bridges, boot camps, and brush-ups suggests that short-term programs may only have short-term impacts. The evidence on different models of developmental reform varies depending on the reform model. For dominant models, it is positive (for compression models), insignificant (for learning communities), or negative (for modularization). For less prevalent models, it is positive (for mainstreaming) or needs further research (for statistics pathways). In terms of innovations that are strictly pedagogical, the strongest positive evidence is found for using structured forms of student collaboration and for building conceptual understanding through the use of multiple representations when teaching and solving problems. The evidence on computer-mediated instruction in the developmental math classroom is very mixed, with some studies finding positive effects and others finding negative effects. Appended are: (1) Search Strategy and Inclusion Criteria; and (2) Summary of Studies. (Contains 2 tables and 11 footnotes.)

Community colleges are increasingly being pressed to demonstrate efficiency and improve productivity even as these concepts are not clearly defined and require a significant set of assumptions to determine. This paper sets out a preferred economic definition of efficiency: fiscal and social cost per degree. It then assesses the validity of using IPEDS data to calculate efficiency for the community college system. Using IPEDS, I estimate the fiscal cost per associate degree at $52,900 for comprehensive community colleges and $42,740 for vocational colleges (in 2008 dollars); the social costs per degree are $71,610 and $56,930, respectively. The community college sector has become more efficient over time: fiscal and social costs per degree are lower in real terms in 2008 than they were in 1987. However, two issues are important to the validity of IPEDS: the ability to adjust for differences in student ability and the way that transfer patterns are incorporated. This paper addresses both of them. Total Annual Expenditures: Community College Sector is appended. (Contains 6 figures, 3 tables, and 44 footnotes.)

School district consolidation enjoys a unique status among strategies to reduce education costs. It promises to cut spending, without lowering service quality, by improving the efficiency of service delivery. In contrast to strategies aimed at lowering employee salaries or benefits--which are hard to avoid when cutting spending in any labor intensive service--consolidation's savings are often presented as essentially free, with no obvious losers. School district consolidation is not new. Indeed Michigan (and the United States) experienced a great wave of school consolidation after World War II. In fact, the number of school districts fell by about 85 percent between 1940 and 1970; the pace of consolidation has since slowed considerably. In this paper, the author offers some observations intended to inform the discussion of school consolidation in Michigan. He will start by reviewing the very limited evidence on the magnitude of potential consolidation savings in Michigan. Next, he will suggest factors that policymakers ought to consider when assessing whether consolidation is appropriate. He will argue that, while there are untapped consolidation savings, the magnitude of those savings is surely smaller than commonly imagined and some are concentrated in unexpected places. Finally, he will turn from economic to political considerations and ask who should decide where consolidation takes place. (Contains 16 footnotes.) [For its related report, "Reaction to "Observations on School District and Service Consolidation in Michigan. Working Paper #17". Working Paper #18," see ED537162.]

This paper assesses the impact on economic growth of increased efficiency of public spending in primary and lower-secondary education. Higher efficiency in public spending in schools can bolster growth through two main channels. On the one hand, it can allow a transfer of labour from the public sector to the business sector at unchanged educational output. On the other, it can enhance educational output and productivity of the future labour force at unchanged public employment and expenditures. The paper argues that, in most cases, efficiency gains might have larger effects on GDP in the long run if they are used to increase educational outputs rather than to reduce inputs. A 10% increase on educational output might raise GDP by, on average, 3% to 6% in the long run in most OECD countries, whereas using efficiency gains to transfer resources to the business sector might have an impact of less than 1% on GDP. However, some trade-off can appear in the short run because input-decreasing efficiency gains materialise more rapidly on growth than improvements in output-increasing efficiency. (A bibliography is included. Contains 12 footnotes, 3 figures and 2 tables.)

Community colleges are under pressure to increase completion rates and efficiency despite limited evidence of the economic consequences of different reform strategies. We introduce an economic model of student course pathways linked to college expenditures and revenues. Using detailed data from a single college, we calculate baseline efficiency and differences in efficiency for students who follow different pathways. We simulate changes in output, expenditures, revenues, net revenues, and efficiency assuming that the college meets particular performance targets. Findings indicate substantial differences in efficiency across pathways and significant differences in efficiency across strategies to help students complete college. They also suggest that increasing the completion rate is difficult and typically requires additional resources beyond the costs of implementing particular strategies. The model has wide practical application for community colleges. Appended are: (1) Measurement of the College Completion Rate; and (2) Outcomes for "U.S.A. Community College". (Contains 7 tables and 12 footnotes.)

OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) has worked on Open Educational Resources (OER) in the past, which led to the publication "Giving Knowledge for Free--the Emergence of Open Educational Resources" (2007). This working paper thus builds on exploratory and forward-looking research in CERI and invites countries to consider the policy implications of the expansion of OER, its benefits and associated challenges. A small OER expert group was established to discuss the subject, link it to other relevant developments in the field, and develop a draft questionnaire for member countries in order to collect information regarding the policy context related to OER. The expert group met in June 2011 and for a second time in September 2011. The questionnaire was sent to the 34 OECD member countries in August 2011. It outlined a short informative note about the benefits and challenges of OER. The responses to the questionnaire are analysed in this document. Annexed are: (1) Preamble; and (2) Questionnaire. (Contains 7 figures and 18 notes.)

The latest installment of the Fordham Institute's "Creating Sound Policy for Digital Learning" series investigates one of the more controversial aspects of digital learning: How much does it cost? In this paper, the Parthenon Group uses interviews with more than fifty vendors and online-schooling experts to estimate today's average per-pupil cost for a variety of schooling models, traditional and online, and presents a nuanced analysis of the important variance in cost between different school designs. These ranges--from $5,100 to $7,700 for full-time virtual schools, and $7,600 to $10,200 for the blended version--highlight both the potential for low-cost online schooling and the need for better data on costs and outcomes in order for policymakers to reach confident conclusions related to the productivity and efficiency of these promising new models. (Contains 2 figures and 4 endnotes.)

Like most everyone, schools have been forced to tighten their belts to survive in today's economic downturn. School leaders have been cutting budgets for afterschool activities, classroom equipment, and staff, all in an era of increasing academic expectations. It is little surprise, then, that facilities issues have been relegated to the bottom of the to-do list. However, the enormous costs and burdens of outmoded facilities arrangements represent an immense opportunity for the nation's school systems. In this paper, the author explores the causes of the nation's $300 billion funding shortfall in K-12 facilities and offers concrete recommendations to address this troubling trend. The author posits that public-private partnerships are a promising avenue for tapping the resources needed to address capital needs, but that current financial conditions in K-12 scare off potential investors. By overhauling facilities financing and exploring innovative approaches, policymakers can create the space for private investors to support school facilities. Helping schools better meet their facilities needs, the author argues, entails: (1) Holding educators and schools accountable for academic "and" financial performance; (2) Loosening regulations that limit the reach of charter schools and other nontraditional programs; and (3) Creating more opportunities for schools to take advantage of nontraditional financing options. Enacting such measures, the author asserts, will allow for a more stable and investor-friendly system for financing facilities. He explains, "Once established, uniformity, liquidity, and stability can foster increased partnerships between public and private parties, bringing more resources into the sector and allowing educators more time to tend to their profession." (Contains 6 figures and 9 endnotes.)

Increasing evidence shows that investing in social sector supply, service, and value chains has exponentially stronger development impact than investments in other sectors. There are often severely lacking social services such as child care, elder care, health care delivery, prescription drug distribution, home schooling, and private sector training. These areas serve people (even the poorest people) who are willing to pay for or make contributions towards the overall costs. Weak social systems are, as Elinor Ostrom describes them, "collective action problems" where a common pool of resources is needed with "polycentric small units nested in larger systems," i.e., within markets for social good there are needs for state-sponsored social systems, supporting services delivery enterprises, entrepreneurs who identify gaps and fill them through charity or investment, and workforce agencies and businesses that provide people with the skills needed to expand access, affordability, and employment in social sectors. (Contains 8 endnotes.) [For "Taking Workforce Initiatives to Scale: Workforce Initiatives Discussion Paper #2," see ED520198.]

In this paper the author draws on his years of experience as a superintendent and special education consultant to offer a litany of field-tested practices for taming out-of-control special education spending while serving students better. He sketches ways for districts to do far better in four key areas. He explains how to squeeze costs and boost results by: (1) better integrating special education with general education classrooms; (2) smarter deployment of support staff; (3) the use of more sophisticated metrics to gauge effectiveness metrics; and (4) employing more strategic management structures. Such strategies, he argues, equip teachers and administrators to better meet student needs while also helping policymakers provide much-needed targeted support for cost-effective practices. As he notes, "Districts must tackle the twin challenges of controlling special education costs and improving student achievement. In short, we are asking districts to do more with less." (Contains 7 figures and 18 endnotes.)