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Under a Congressional mandate, the General Accounting Office (GAO) studied the costs of implementing tests that will be required under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) and the reauthorization of the Title I program. In passing the legislation, Congress increased the frequency with which states are to measure student achievement in mathematics and reading and added science as another subject. Congress also authorized funding to support state efforts to develop and implement tests for this purpose. Using data from many sources, GAO determined the characteristics of states' Title I tests and made estimates of what states may spend to implement the required tests. The study also identified factors that explain the variation in expenses among states. The study found that the majority of states do administer statewide tests and customize questions to measure student learning against state standards. The report contains three estimates of total expenditures between fiscal year 2002 and 2008, based on different assumptions about the types of test questions states may choose to implement and how they are scored. If all states use tests with multiple-choice questions that are machine scored, GAO estimates that total state expenditures will be about $1.9 billion. Increasing the amount of hand scoring required is estimated to increase testing expenses. Given that significant expenses may be associated with testing, GAO is recommending that the Department of Education facilitate the sharing of information on states' experiences in attempting to reduce expenses. Eight appendixes contain supplemental information and summaries of reporting requirements under the NCBLA. (Contains 13 tables and 7 figures.) (SLD)

In October 2002, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board adopted a preliminary analysis of the costs and benefits of reaching the first two goals of "Closing the Gaps by 2015," the state's higher education plan. Refinements to the analysis, which adjusted for inflation and made other changes, were presented in January 2003, and the updated report was approved in March 2003. Changes, taken together, increased the previous cost estimate for "Closing the Gaps," which included only marginal growth using fiscal year 2000 data for 300,000 students, from $6.3 billion to $8.4 billion. An additional $4.8 billion was associated with normal growth, bringing the total cost associated with general revenue appropriations to institutions, financial aid, and tuition and fees to $13.2 billion through 2015. An alternative analysis was also developed to provide the potential costs associated with continuing past enrollment trends, those expected if "Closing the Gaps" is not implemented. The analysis indicates that there is a net positive return associated with obtaining education beyond high school. This investment in human capital, by both the state and the student, is projected to cost an estimated $6.9 billion in new construction costs for public universities and community colleges and also to account for the cost of normal growth in enrollment and for "Closing the Gaps" growth. However, the discounted return on the investment for both normal growth and growth associated with "Closing the Gaps," with the multiplier effect included, is calculated at $325 billion. Subtracting opportunity costs produces a net benefit of $274 billion. Overall, the investment produced more than a 13-fold return and an additional $2.8 billion in discounted general revenue. (SLD)

Part of a series of reports based on descriptive information on more than 9,000 special education students derived from the Special Education Expenditure Project data for the 1999-2000 school year, this report provides information on spending for transportation services for students with disabilities. Major findings include: (1) during the 1999-2000 school year, the nation's school districts spent around $13.1 billion on home-to-school and school-to-school transportation services for all K-12 students in public schools and of this, total expenditure for special education is estimated to be about $3.7 billion; (2) the regular education transportation expenditure per pupil is an estimated $442, while the special education transportation expenditure per pupil is approximately $4,418; (3) about 1.97 million or 33% of students with disabilities receive transportation services provided by their district; (4) the number of students receiving special transportation has declined from 30% in 1985-86 to 14% in 1999-2000; (5) since 1985-86, the special transportation expenditure per pupil in constant dollars has increased from about $2,463 to $4,418, an increase of 80%, while the per pupil spending on regular transportation rose from $365 to $442, an increase of 20%; and (6) special transportation spending per pupil is nearly ten times greater than spending on regular transportation. (CR)

This is the 2001-2002 management plan for the City College of San Francisco (CCSF), California. The plan contains the following sections: (1) Overview of Planning and Budgeting; (2) Vision, Values, and Mission; (3) College Goals and Strategic Priorities; (4) Annual Institutional Plan CCSF 2002-03; (5) College Core Performance Indicators; and (6) Chancellor's Budget Message. The annual planning and budgeting process at CCSF is the central component of a comprehensive planning, management, and evaluation system. The annual budget for fiscal year (FY) 2003 was prepared by the Chancellor for the CCSF Board of Trustees. The District's budget has to absorb both the impact of a $2.4 million dollar loss in sales tax revenue due to the recession and the added pressures on the expenditure budget for cost increases of $3.3 million for health benefits, retirement, facility rentals, instructional supplies, and insurance coverage. There are also ongoing talks regarding possible reductions in state funding. FY 2001-02 did see unprecedented enrollment growth, which generated $1.4 million in new growth funds and $0.9 million in one-time Basic Skills funding. Breakdown of the annual budget, cost to continue tables, and summary of new faculty positions are appended. (NB)

The costs of the Department of Labor's Welfare-to-Work (WTW) grants program were analyzed by studying 18 WTW programs from 9 in-depth evaluation sites. The programs differed from the standpoints of their service locations, target populations, and service emphasis, and their costs variations were consistent with those differences. The 18 programs cost an estimated $22.6 million over 1 year, with per-program annual costs ranging from slightly more than $200,000 to more than $7 million. Average per-participant costs by dominant service approach were as follows: (1) enhanced direct employment programs emphasizing quick entry into employment but also offering preemployment preparation and outplacement assistance, $3,559; (2) transitional programs seeking to systematically enhance participants' employability, $4,346; (3) programs helping WTW participants prepare for jobs with employer partners, $4,513; and (4) postemployment services programs, $2,178. On average, WTW programs cost more than WIN (Work Incentives) models (average per-participant cost, $2,147), less than Supported Work (average per-participant cost, $11,572), and about the same as JOBS (Job Opportunities and Basic Skills) programs (average per-participant cost, $3,327). The following items are appended: profiles of WTW programs included in the cost analysis; background information on programs comparable to WTW; and a list of WTW in-depth evaluation sites not included in the cost analysis. (Contains 30 references and 21 tables.)(MN)

The New York State Board of Regents and the Commissioner of Education have identified a set of performance standards for students that reflect the knowledge and skills needed to function as productive citizens in the 21st century. The New York State Department of Education has developed new Regents Examinations, which all students must pass to graduate from high school, and new examinations in fourth and eighth grades that serve as intermediate checkpoints for assessing progress. This paper develops estimates of the costs of financing the achievement of higher standards. Key tools for estimating the cost of adequacy are education cost functions and cost of education indexes. The cost function approach uses statistical methods to extract from actual data the relationship between student characteristics, cost of living, and spending required to meet performance standards. Overall, greater student needs and higher salaries required to recruit good teachers significantly raise the cost of education in large New York cities. The total spending increase statewide required to reach the recommended standard is $7.2 billion. New York's current system of school aid programs is not well-suited to reaching student performance objectives. Developing an adequacy-based finance system will require a better-designed aid system, a required minimum level of contribution from all districts, and improved use of all resources. (SM)

This paper presents estimates of the added costs and potential savings associated with reorganizing public education from the current unintegrated system to a fully integrated P-16 system. (P-16 systems are attempts to create a coherent, flexible system of public education that stretches from preschool through the fourth year of college.) Models for building the estimates are created for a hypothetical state with characteristics that, when multiplied by 50, would represent the country as a whole. The models, however, are based on work done in actual states and programs. The models explicitly link resources to objectives associated with particular levels of service or particular levels of performance. Using the models, the paper examines three primary components of the P-16 system likely to have cost implications: (1) the cost of providing universal prekindergarten services; (2) the cost of implementing a competency-based approach to student progress; and (3) the cost of restructuring the relationship between high schools and colleges. For each component, the paper presents a low-cost, medium-cost, and high-cost scenario, presented in tabular form. (WFA)

Because of concerns about the Department of Education's reliance on estimates to project costs of the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP) and a lack of historical information on which to base those estimates, Congress asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to review how the department develops its cost estimates for the program, review and analyze actual versus estimated financial performance, and address factors or circumstances that can significantly affect the department's ability to develop realistic estimates of program costs. This report responds to that request, specifically answering nine related questions. To answer these questions, the GAO reviewed the department's audited financial statements and examined the work papers of its independent auditors for fiscal years 1995 through 1999. It interviewed knowledgeable personnel from the department's Budget Service and compared its practices to other budgeting and accounting standards. The bulk of the report addresses the nine questions and includes numerous tables and figures. An overview of findings, background information on the loan program, and glossary are also included. Appendices include information on estimating credit program costs, and the objectives, scope, and methodology of the report. (EV)

The Southern Regional Education Board partnered with the not-for-profit organization Project Lead the Way (PLTW) to develop a program connecting challenging academic courses with a pre-engineering program of study. The programs goal is to increase the number and quality of engineers and engineering technologists by providing the following items: (1) a fully developed curriculum for high schools; (2) a middle grades technology program; (3) extensive training for teachers; (4) training for school counselors; (5) access to affordable equipment; and (6) college-level certification and course credit. The program's middle grades component combines challenging academic courses with courses devoted to design and modeling, the "magic" of electrons, the science of technology, and automation and robotics. The high school component consists of a challenging standards-based pre-engineering curriculum that requires students to apply their knowledge and skills in mathematics, science, and technology to solving real-world engineering problems in five hands-on pre-engineering courses. The program's teacher and counselor preparation component includes preassessment, a summer training institute, and ongoing training. The estimated costs of 1 middle grades laboratory with 26 student stations and the high school component for a class of 20 students are estimated at $54,147 and $95,508, respectively. Students who have participated in the program have spoken of it very highly. (MN)

This report critiques a study that condemned the privatization of school transportation in Ohio. The original study, authored by Mark Cassell, concluded that student transportation offered by a private company is more expensive than similar transportation that is provided in-house. The present report claims that the Cassell study ignored some direct costs and all indirect costs, including facility/equipment costs, and allocated indirect costs, such as legal expenses, insurance, and real-estate costs. It states that Cassell erred when he compared the marginal costs of providing in-house transportation (the cost of labor and materials to produce an additional unit of a product) with the average cost formula that is used by for-profit companies (costs are allocated over the total costs of the units produced). Since government enterprises frequently cross-subsidize operations and therefore understate capital requirements, any comparison of a school district's marginal costs with a transportation company's fully allocated costs will likely underestimate the district's costs. Furthermore, districts can ensure that no one company creates a monopoly of transportation services by securing the services of 2 or more organizations and by rebidding contracts every 5 years. (Contains 16 references.) (RJM)

The Department of Defense's (DOD) child development program has been identified as a model for the rest of the nation. To provide a benchmark cost estimate for Congress as it addresses child care issues, this report identifies the objectives of the military child development program, describes its operation, determines the full costs of DOD centers and the cost per child-hour for center-based care, and compares this cost with the full cost of comparable quality civilian child care. Only Air Force child development centers were included because the Air Force was the only service whose centers had all met the accreditation standards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Cost estimate data came from the Air Force and other government sources and child development centers. Cost estimates for civilian child care centers came from a study of 150 centers identified as providing high-quality care out of a sample of 401 centers in 4 states. The military program's primary objective is to help families balance competing demands of family and military responsibilities by providing high-quality child care at affordable rates. Caregivers have comprehensive child development training and receive salaries meeting prescribed minimum levels. The Air Force's cost of operating its centers was $81.4 million in fiscal year 1997, with an estimated cost per child-hour of $3.86. When adjusted for age distribution of the children, the costs of high-quality care in Air Force and civilian centers were not substantially different. (Five appendices include a description of the study methodology and cost comparisons.) (KB)

This paper describes the activity-based costing approach used to report and capture the time spent by faculty for specified activities at one Midwestern university. For each department, four major areas (instruction, research, public service, and administration) and 14 activities were identified. During the annual goal-setting period, each faculty member and the department head allotted the faculty member's time for the following academic year using the 14 identified activities. Funding allocation decisions at the department level were based on these staff assignments. Two reports were derived from the process. The first report showed the state dollar amount allocated for each of the four areas for each department. The second report provided data on faculty time utilization within the four general activity areas. Finally, university data were compared to national norms based on results from a triennial national survey. Evaluation of the process after three years determined that training and better provisions of information to departments and units was needed. (Contains 11 references.) (DB)

This report provides an update of the costs of alcohol and drug abuse for 1997. The 1997 costs were estimated by multiplying the percent changes in various socioeconomic factors from 1989 to 1997 by the cost estimates. The adverse health and social consequences of substance abuse extensively increased costs to the state. The total economic costs of alcohol and drug abuse in Texas were estimated at $19.3 billion in 1997. More than 60 percent of the costs resulted from lost productivity ($8.1 billion) and premature death ($3.9 billion) caused by substance abuse. On a per capita basis, the 1997 amount translates to $1,001 per man, woman, and child in the state. Cost estimates are presented in charts and tables with discussion. Core costs include cost of treatment, morbidity (lost productivity), and mortality (premature death). Direct cost variables studied include crime, motor vehicle crashes, social welfare administration, and fire destruction; indirect costs include productivity losses due to victimization, incarceration, and criminal careers. Costs due to diseases are related to AIDS, Hepatitis B, and perinatal substance exposure. Methods used, data sources, and adjustment factors are discussed. Comparison costs for 1989, 1994 and 1997 are appended. (Author/EMK)

Minnesota assigns responsibility for paying the price of college to students, families and taxpayers. This document explores how the state determines the financial role of each contributor, offers incentives for families and students to prepare for assuming their share of costs, and discusses how higher education institutions and political leaders can address the price of higher education. It examines student and parent debts, the partial support provided by financial aid, and the limited affordability of higher education as prices rise at public and private educational institutions in the 90s nationwide. Offers suggestions for containing college costs, including: (1) accountability should be increased through performance-based funding; (2) the different higher education institutions should work cooperatively; (3) more collaborations should be formed with businesses and other schools; and (4) the potential for technology to extend geographic reach should be exploited. Included are graphs illustrating the rate at which average annual tuition is likely to continue to rise, earnings needed for annual loan payments, and legislature's maximum allowed college price as it compares to colleges' estimated price. (AS)

This report is one of a series from a project entitled "Case Studies in Evaluating the Benefits and Costs of Mediated Instruction and Distributed Learning," funded through a Field-Initiated Studies Educational Research Grant. The case study subject is the use of Daedalus courseware, an interactive program that allows all participants to read and comment upon the work of others, to teach basic English writing at Baruch College in the City University of New York system. In spring 1997, Daedalus was used for the first time in a course designed for students who fail to demonstrate minimal proficiency in reading and writing (75% of the 16 students in the Daedalus section passed the CUNY Writing Assessment Test, compared to 53% of the 15 students in the control section). The instructor's assessment of the exit exams indicated that the students in the Daedalus section wrote longer, higher quality essays. The report includes the following sections: (1) "Summary, Findings, and Conclusions"; (2) "Background and Context"; (3) "Benefits of Daedalus: Student Learning Outcomes, Student Persistence, and Institutional Renewal"; and (4) "Cost Estimates." Also included are a table of contents and "Appendix A: Abstract on Teaching Writing with Computers," using example of InterChange exercise. (DLS)

This policy brief explains why performance focus and educational cost indexes must go hand in hand, discusses alternative methods for estimating educational cost indexes, and shows how these costs indexes can be incorporated into a performance-based state aid program. A shift to educational performance standards, whether these standards are targets or are embedded in a foundation aid program, can be neither fair nor effective unless it recognizes the variation in the cost of education. Using data from New York State, the brief shows that controlling for costs in the design of school aid formulas is crucial to enable central cities to reach educational adequacy standards. This paper uses an approach to educational cost indexes that selects performance indicators on statistical grounds. This approach determines which performance indicators are valued by voters, as shown by their correlation with property values and school spending. It then uses these indicators in an index of educational performance that is a weighted average of the statistically significant performance indicators in which the weights reflect the value voters place on each indicator. For New York, this approach leads to an index based on three performance indicators: (1) the average share of students above the standard reference point on third and sixth grade standardized tests for mathematics and reading; (2) the share of students who receive the demanding New York Regents diploma; and (3) the graduation rate. (Contains 2 figures, 11 endnotes, and 27 references.) (SLD)

Personnel involved in planning or developing schools lack the costing tools that will enable them to determine educational technology costs. This report presents an overview of the technology costing process and the general costs used in estimating educational technology systems on a macro-budget basis, along with simple cost estimates for technology systems based on a per-port system. It offers suggestions on determining the quantity and types of space required during the preliminary stages of project design and how to determine the educational technology budget. A sample budgetary worksheet is included. (GR)

An August 1997 report from the Office of the State Auditor, this document contains the results of an enrollment audit of Texas' Public Community and Technical Colleges. It recommends that no adjustments be made to the Public Community and Technical Colleges' 1998-1999 biennial appropriations, due to the fact that the $7.7 million in errors identified by self-reported items and spring semester estimates fall below the allowable two-percent rate of error. Twenty-six colleges overestimated spring semester estimates by a total of $3,381,888, and 30 colleges underestimated spring semester estimates by a total of $1,827,022. In addition, 50 colleges informed the auditor of overreported items amounting to $2,500,761, and 1 college told of underreported items amounting to $15,981. The audit found that appropriations could be allocated more accurately if allocations were based on certified data, which could be accomplished by changing the base period or providing for a required adjustment after contact hours have been certified. Appendices include the objective, scope, and methodology, and a summary of self-reported errors and spring semester estimates. (YKH)

With the increasing pace of school construction, knowing how much a school should cost can facilitate effective new-school planning. To help with this process, this document provides new-construction costs as figured for the State of Georgia. The estimates include costs per square foot for elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools, as well as extra expenses, such as additions to classrooms, media rooms and laboratories, and physical education facilities. Support areas, such as administrative suites, kitchens, cafeterias, and restrooms are likewise estimated. This document also discusses what educators can expect in the way of architect fees and contingencies, as well as estimated renovation costs of buildings varying widely in age. The construction of the physical plant must also be estimated and costs per square foot for roofing, heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning are supplied. (RJM)