Henry M. Levin

• Ph.D.
• Professor at Columbia University

Growing demand for accountability, transparency, and efficiency in health professions education is expected to drive increased demand for, and use of, cost and value analyses. In this AMEE Guide, we introduce key concepts, methods, and literature that will enable novices in economics to conduct simple cost and value analyses, hold informed discussi...

There is growing evidence that out-of-school factors, such as physical and mental health, family support, and social and emotional development, significantly affect student learning (Berliner 2009). To address challenges related to poverty, schools are being charged with serving as a focal point in providing and coordinating support services for st...

The Minnesota Reading Corps (MRC) program is a statewide AmeriCorps early literacy initiative that aims to foster emergent literacy skills of children to ensure reading proficiency by the end of grade 3. MRC and its host organization, Reading & Math, Inc. (RMI), aim to address the resource gaps within under-resourced schools by bringing AmeriCorps...

In this report, we present a cost analysis of Raising Educational Achievement Coalition of Harlem (REACH), a partnership between Teachers College, Columbia University, and five high-needs schools in Harlem, New York City. A rigorous cost analysis can help illuminate the resources used to implement its theory of action, in addition to contextualizin...

This book is published by a commercial publisher. Amazon sells used copies for very low costs.

This chapter addresses the knowledge base on selection and evaluation of effective teachers using recent empirical literature from the United States. It finds that the traditional criteria of teacher licensing, educational credentials, and teaching experience show extremely weak relationships to gains (value-added) in student achievement. Combining...

Incl. bibl.

This article reports a benefit–cost evaluation of the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) of the City University of New York (CUNY). ASAP was designed to accelerate associate degree completion within 3 years of degree enrollment at CUNY’s community colleges. The program evaluation revealed that the completion rate for the examined cohort...

There is growing evidence that social and emotional skills can be taught to students in school and teaching these skills can have a positive effect on later outcomes, such as better mental health and less drug use. This paper presents a benefit-cost analysis of a longitudinal social and emotional learning intervention in Sweden, using data for 663...

Educational equity is a moral imperative for a society in which education is a crucial determinant of life chances. Yet there is reluctance by some authorities to invest in our most needy populations and even a skepticism on whether money makes a difference in educational results for such students (e.g., Hanushek, 2002).

Alli Klapps bok ”Utbildningsekonomi i skolan – varför då?” vänder sig till verksamma lärare, skolledare, lärarstudenter, utvecklingsledare, politiker och forskare. Klapps bok är en introduktion till ämnet utbildningsekonomi i relation till pedagogik och skolan. Utbildningsekonomer har haft stort inflytande på de reformer som genomförts i skolan, på...

Educational interventions are complex: Often they combine a diagnostic component (identifying student need) with a service component (ensuring appropriate educational resources are provided). This complexity raises challenges for program evaluation. These interventions, which we refer to as service mediation interventions, affect additional resourc...

There is a growing body of research emphasizing the advantages of teaching students social and emotional (SE) skills in school. Here we examine the economic value of these skills within a benefit-cost analysis (BCA) framework. Our examination has three parts. First, we describe how the current method of BCA must be expanded to adequately evaluate S...

We review the value of cost-effectiveness analysis for evaluation and decision-making with respect to educational programs and discuss its application to early reading interventions. We describe the conditions for a rigorous cost-effectiveness analysis and illustrate the challenges of applying the method in practice, providing examples of programs...

Schools have historically and increasingly played an important role in providing services to meet students’ social and emotional, family, health, and academic needs. Coordinating these services in a way that is strategically aligned with a school’s academic mission and that efficiently addresses the needs of all students is often challenging and co...

A worrisome question that affects all Americans is whether we are educating a productive labor force today that will be able to compete effectively in the world economy of tomorrow. The poignancy of this question is sharpened by the grim reports that are issued in international surveys of skills. Such surveys show that both U.S. schoolchildren and...

There is a growing body of research emphasizing the advantages of teaching students social and emotional (SE) skills in school. Here we examine the economic value of these skills within a benefit-cost analysis (BCA) framework. Our examination has three parts. First, we describe how the current method of BCA must be expanded to adequately evaluate S...

Many studies of the economic value of education rely on the contribution of education to student achievement. With the notable exception of the work of James Heckman, there has been little economic attention devoted to the impact of non-cognitive impacts of school such as interpersonal and intrapersonal development or social and emotional skills. T...

There is a growing body of research emphasizing the advantages of teaching students social and emotional (SE) skills in school. Here we examine the economic value of these skills within a benefit-cost analysis (BCA) framework. Our examination has three parts. First, we describe how the current method of BCA must be expanded to adequately evaluate S...

Cost-effectiveness analysis is rarely used in education. When it is used, it often fails to meet methodological standards, especially with regard to cost measurement. Although there are occasional criticisms of these failings, we believe that it is useful to provide a listing of the more common concerns and how they might be addressed. Based upon b...

Medical education is expensive. Although we have made progress in working out 'what works' in medical education, there are few data on whether medical education offers value relative to cost. Research into cost and value in medical education is beset by problems. One of the major problems is the lack of clear definitions for many of the terms commo...

In this article, we perform cost-effectiveness analysis on interventions that improve the rate of high school completion. Using the What Works Clearinghouse to select effective interventions, we calculate cost-effectiveness ratios for five youth interventions. We document wide variation in cost-effectiveness ratios between programs and between site...

Social justice in education refers to the expectation that the education system provides fairness in its access to opportunities and results. Proponents of educational privatisation believe this would not only open up opportunities for those that otherwise are restricted from attending good schools, but that it would also improve overall efficiency...

This study evaluates CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) from a benefit-cost perspective. ASAP is designed to accelerate degree completion within three years at community colleges. This report builds on the CUNY evaluations of ASAP, which provide consistent evidence for the dramatic success of ASAP on increasing the timely complet...

This study is a cost-effectiveness analysis of seven early literacy programs that have all been previously identified as effective at improving reading outcomes for students in Grades K-3. We use the ingredients method to collect cost data for each program and compare the cost-effectiveness of programs serving students in the same grade level.

Most attention in large-scale assessments on educational progress and outcomes addresses cognitive measures of student proficiency. In part, this focus is due to the assumption that “skills” are cognitive in nature and have a high predictive value in terms of productivity. However, the predictive value of cognitive scores on worker productivity and...

This chapter is a narrative account of a Ford Foundation sponsored project from mid-2005 through 2008 for investigating into the causes and engineering a solution to the migrant workers education access problems in manufacturing areas in Shanghai, China. The project team was comprised of faculty members and students from East China Normal Universit...

This report demonstrates the methods of cost-effectiveness analysis as applied to several educational programs that have been shown to improve the rate of high school completion.

Around the world we hear considerable talk about creating world-class schools. Usually the term refers to schools whose students get very high scores on the international comparisons of student achievement such as PISA or TIMSS. The practice of restricting the meaning of exemplary schools to the narrow criterion of achievement scores is usually pre...

Although community colleges enroll almost half of the students engaged in postsecondary education, they have poor success in student completion of degrees. Nationally it appears that less than a quarter of community college students obtain the two-year associate degree, and the success rate is even lower in urban community colleges. In response, th...

As the number of charter schools has grown nationally, there is increasing discussion of the consolidation of such schools into charter districts in which all schools would be charter schools from which parents would have the freedom to choose the school that they wished their student to attend. A major question is how such a charter school distric...

The purpose of this article is to outline the determinants of early childhood care and education (ECCE) costs as well as a method for measuring them, and to set out available cost data provided by countries for their ECCE endeavors. The analysis is based upon comparison of available data for 17 countries. We first address why costs may differ signi...

Many of America’s youth are neither enrolled in school nor participating in the labor market – they are not investing in their human capital or earning income. We calculate the economic burden of these ‘opportunity youth’ from the perspective of both the taxpayer and society. We also calculate the immediate burden – that which is incurred when a pe...

Approximately half of all New York City public school students who live in families with incomes less than 185% of the federal poverty level (FPL) do not graduate from high school. These dropouts are much less likely to achieve economic self-sufficiency in adulthood. This creates both a fiscal and social burden. Rothstein, Wilder and Allgood (2011)...

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) are methods used by economists to evaluate educational programs or investments. CBA evaluates programs in monetary terms; CEA evaluates programs against specified educational objectives. Both methods allow for a ranking of programs in terms of resource use and outcomes through the ex...

Educational privatization comprises not only private schools, but also a variety of other educational arrangements that have important elements of private finance, operations, and services. These include home schooling, charter schools, public schools with fees, and schools managed by private entities under contract. Financing arrangements entail n...

"Between Public and Private" examines an innovative approach to school district management that has been adopted by a number of urban districts in recent years: a portfolio management model, in which "a central office oversees a portfolio of schools offering diverse organizational and curricular themes, including traditional public schools, private...

Abstract California’s juvenile crime rate is high. Juveniles commit,one-in-six violent crimes,and over one-quarter of all property crimes; they also commit crimes in school, victimizing one-quarter of all students,and one-in-twelve teachers. The economic,loss from juvenile crime is substantial. In total, each juvenile cohort in California imposes a...

In this report, we examine how improving mathematics performance has economic consequences through raising high school graduation rates. We investigate the link between higher mathematics achievement in school and subsequent human capital and labor market outcomes. We then predict the effect of improving math skills in grades 8 and 10 on the yield...

Community colleges have been emerging in China and have the potential to be the main candidate to address the nation's needs for the next rush of higher education expansion. As the concept of community colleges has been borrowed from the United States and applied to address local needs, there have been some innovative variations in developing the m...

The quest for educational equity is a moral imperative for a society in which education is a crucial determinant of life chances. Yet whether there is an economic return to the taxpayer for investing in educational justice is often not considered. It is possible that the economic benefits of reducing inadequate education exceed the costs, returning...

The article examines methodological issues in the use of national assessments of student performance both locally and globally. In particular, it examines the use of PISA and TIMSS questionnaires to measure academic achievement in reading, mathematics and science. It is suggested that questionnaires used need to take into account the nature of the...

Introduction Among all of the major demographic groups in the United States, African American (Black) males experience the poorest educational outcomes. Whether we measure such outcomes in terms of test scores, high school graduation, postsecondary attendance, or college graduation, African American males lag substantially behind other groups. It i...

Remediation is the most common approach to preparing students academically and socially during their early stages of college. However, despite its profound importance and its significant costs, there is very little rigorous research analyzing its effectiveness. The goal of this article is to provide a conceptual framework for the evaluation of reme...

This paper explores alternatives for improving education in Minnesota using benefit-cost criteria. Benefits of better education include higher productivity and income, health status, and avoidance of the criminal justice system. Benefits to the taxpayer include higher tax revenues and lower costs for public services.

State and local governments that wish to establish or improve preschool programs need cost estimates to evaluate the magnitude of appropriations required. Yet even a casual scrutiny of available expenditure data reveals an enormous variance between the most expensive and least expensive preschool provisions. The purpose of this paper is to delineat...

This article considers two issues regarding preschool education. First, it provides a brief set of arguments for government funding of universal, pre-school education. Second, it explores the applicability of a voucher plan using a regulated market approach for the funding of universal, pre-school education. Four criteria are used to assess the app...

This paper calculates the public savings (financial benefits) from greater public investments in the education of African-American males. Over one-fifth of each age cohort of black males in US is not a high school graduate. We identify five interventions that would—based on credible research—increase the graduation rate; we also report the public c...

Abstract We review a large range of educational investments that might ensure more students graduate from high school in California. We identify educational interventions for which there is reasonably solid evidence of their efficacy to raise the rate of high school graduation, those for which there is promise,and those for which we have no relevan...

We find that an investment of $82,000 in powerful educational interventions and additional years of schooling would yield a public benefit of $209,000 in higher government revenues and lower government spending. The net economic benefit to the public purse is therefore $127,000 per student and the benefits are 2.5 times greater than the costs.

This longitudinal study examined the effects of providing an accelerated mathematics curriculum in heterogeneously grouped middle school classes in a diverse suburban school district. A quasi-experimental cohort design was used to evaluate subsequent completion of advanced high school math courses as well as academic achievement. Results showed tha...

Much of the recent literature on improving education in the United States seeks to promote entrepreneurship as the solution to raising educational quality and equity. But, the historical record documenting substantial and sustained departure from conventional educational practices is scant despite numerous attempts at entrepreneurial innovation. Th...

A major source of oppression in industrial and post-industrial society is the restrictive and highly authoritarian nature of the workplace. One response is to democratize the workplace by increasing the participation of workers in making decisions and in choosing and evaluating managers as well as sharing in the ownership of the firm. These are not...

A presentation of factors that determine costs of early childhood care and education (ECCE) programs generally, data on ECCE costs of various countries, and an outline of a method for comprehensive and consistent measurement of program costs

This article addresses the application of the Accelerated Schools Project (ASP) model in Hong Kong, as well as specific aspects of implementation in two schools. One lesson from the localized project, the Accelerated Schools for Quality Education (ASPQE), is that change is slow. This suggests that time should be given for both cultural change and b...

Controversies over the merits of public and private education have never been more prominent than today. This book evaluates public and private schooling, especially in regard to choices families must make for their children. While choice among public schools is widely advocated today by families and states, public support for private education--in...

The Accelerated Schools Project is designed to create schools that provide enriched and accelerated learning opportunities for all students throughout the curriculum. This chapter assesses the first decade of Accelerated Schools which has grown from two pilot schools in 1986 to almost 1000 schools in 1996. The key factors and changes in the develop...

This paper reviews the research on school supply and reports on recent data from the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), to inform debates about school choice. The MPCP data indicate that about 30% of participating schools are secular, with the remainder religiously affiliated (although most of these religious schools are Catholic, this numbe...

Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses have not been used extensively in program evaluation, despite their obvious value when public and private resources are limited and several courses of action are feasible. Future developments in this area will require consideration of multiple objectives, limited information, and lack of proficiency of d...

This paper estimates the effect of a state-imposed curriculum mandate on the academic achievement of US public school students. By 1998, 14 states across the US had mandates that high school students should take an economics course. For these states, the proportions of public schools students taking high school economics was around twice that of st...

The economic model of education policy assumes that there is a substantial consensus on educational goals among constituencies and that the major challenge is to determine the most effective strategies for reaching those goals. Unfortunately, the debate over educational vouchers is complicated by the presence of multiple and competing goals, and mi...

A middle school in New York eliminated tracked math classes, adopted a universal accelerated math program, and instituted heterogeneous grouping, with dramatic results. Imagine that one school's organizational change resulted in more students taking advanced math courses in middle and high school and that these students demonstrated substantial gai...

Argues that because research finds that families have greater influence on student achievement than schools, proposes that families enter into metaphorical contracts to enhance the education of their children. Makes specific suggests for the terms of the contract. (PKP)

This paper summarizes the trend toward introducing markets into the education sector. We begin with a brief history of the market reforms and then review recent policy developments related to vouchers, charter schools, tuition tax credits, and educational management organizations. The internal anatomy of markets are then described, recognizing both...

A partnership is generally viewed as a formal agreement between two or more parties that provides mutual benefits to those parties. It is rare that such partnerships exist between public and private elementary or secondary schools. Despite the fact that only about 10 percent of the students are enrolled in private schools, educational institutions...

Incl. bibl., index.

Conceptual insights into the phenomenon of rising costs in higher education can have real-world applications.

Major policy debates have arisen around the subject of educational vouchers as an alternative for financing and organizing elementary and secondary education. To a large degree, comparisons between vouchers and the traditional system of educational finance and school operations have been limited to one or two dimensions of education such as the rel...

The educational achievements of the young depend on both family and school, but are much more dependent on the former than the latter. While educational policy has established an extensive set of legal and contractual obligations for schools, the only contractual obligation for families is to meet compulsory education requirements. The establishmen...

This article systematically reviews U.S. evidence from cross-sectional research on educational outcomes when schools must compete with each other. Competition typically is measured by using either the Herfindahl Index or the enrollment rate at an alternative school choice. Outcomes are academic test scores, graduation/attainment, expenditures/effic...

This report examines issues related to the cost effectiveness of whole school reform. The first section discusses the development of whole school reform models, criteria for model adoption, and challenges of whole school reform for evaluation. The second section, "Comparing Effectiveness," looks at models for evaluation (experimental, quasi-experim...

Analysis of New York Supreme Court's interpretation of economics of education literature in its 2001 decision in "Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. The State of New York." Includes educational outcomes, educational inputs, and the efficient use of teacher inputs. Discusses the cost-effectiveness of court reform of education compared with political and...

Incl. bibl. notes. Levin argues that improving efficiency and equity in the present schooling systems in industrializing countries is a sensible direction in the short run. Levin suggests that it is a limited strategy because it does not take into account the long-run implications of globalization, citizenship development and what is known about hu...

Cost-effectiveness analyses, especially in education, are too rare. Yet they offer powerful and valuable insights for evaluators and can provide information that is counter to common sense, popular appeal, and traditional ideas.