ND Topical CallInnovative Uses of Title I, Part D, Funds: Cost-Benefit Analysis to Drive Decisionmaking (Call 1)

February 5, 2014

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Agenda

1. Roll Call

2. Overview of the Innovative Uses of Funds Topical Call Series

3. What is Cost-Benefit Analysis?

4. Evidence-Based Public Policy in the Juvenile Justice SystemGuest Speaker: Elizabeth Drake, Senior Research Associate, Washington State Institute for Public Policy

5. Implications for Title I, Part D

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Series Overview

How can TIPD grantees and subgrantees maximize service delivery for children and youth who are neglected and delinquent with strained state and local budgets?

Promote technical assistance strategies to encourage more creative uses of funds

Share ways in which TIPD funds can and have been used effectively to promote programs

Suggest alternative funding sources to supplement TIPD

Discuss cost-benefit analysis as a tool for driving programming decisions

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What is Cost-Benefit Analysis?

A type of cost analysis, for example:

Cost-allocation: Determine a unit cost or cost per unit of service (e.g., cost of hiring local college tutors)

Cost-effectiveness: Compares two or more interventions according to their effectiveness and the costs associated with achieving specific objectives (e.g., increasing mathematics achievement)

Cost-utility: Used when benefits cannot be easily or reliably expressed in monetary metric terms. In healthcare, outcomes are often expressed in terms of improved quality of life or life expectancy projections

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What is Cost-Benefit Analysis?

Cost-Benefit Analysis: Refers to methods for comparing the

monetized benefits (or outcomes) of a particular intervention to its costs

Helps determine whether implementing a particular intervention is desirable (e.g., given scare funds, shifting student population, teacher attrition)

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What is Cost-Benefit Analysis?

Cost-benefit analysis can support: Staffing decisions (e.g., Should we hire a full-time

paraprofessional, part-time tutors, or maintain the status quo?)

Evaluating a new program, practice, curriculum, or initiative Determining the practicality of procuring new equipment

and/or supplies Revealing unexpected costs Estimating program:

Replicability (e.g., implement a mobile science lab program in a rural area that was designed for an urban area)

Sustainability (e.g., as implementation costs appreciate overtime and access to specific funding sources declines)

7Evidence-Based Public Policy in the Juvenile Justice System

Guest Speaker

Elizabeth Drake

Senior Research Associate

Washington State Institute for Public Policy

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Implications for Title I, Part D

Discussion: How has the current political and economic climate

impacted the way SAs and LEAs seek to used Title I, Part D funds?

What are your most common challenges when trying to determine how best to use Title I, Part D funds?

In what areas do you struggle most to find the funds to support effective programming for N or D children and youth (e.g., staffing, equipment, instructional materials)?

As ND Coordinators, what have been your most peculiar—but potentially intriguing—use of funds requests?

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Implications for Title I, Part D

Dearth of research on the cost-benefit of common interventions for N or D children and youth Cost-benefit analysis is limited to educational

outcomes that can be monetized

Estimating benefits is largely subjective

Risk undervaluing interventions that reap benefits that cannot be expressed easily in monetary terms (e.g., increased self-efficacy as a reader)

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Implications for Title I, Part D

What inferences can be made with rudimentary tools and existing

resources to inform—but not drive—your decisionmaking?

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Sample Cost-Benefit Analysis

BASIC STEPS:1. Brainstorm Costs and Benefits

2. Estimate a monetary value for each cost and benefit

3. Total costs

4. Total benefits

5. Calculate the benefit/cost ratio:

Ratio > 1: Benefits outweigh costs; Action may be warranted

Ratio = 1: Benefits are equal to costs; Maintaining the status quo may be warranted

Ratio < 1: Costs exceed benefits; Action should be taken only if non-monetized benefits are compelling

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Other Resources

Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education Resources Research and program evaluation studies:

Online and Blended Learning

Using Cost-effectiveness Analysis to Evaluate School of One

A blended learning math intervention for middle school students

High School Completion

Cost-effectiveness Analysis of Interventions that Improve High School Completion

Literacy

The Considerations of Costs in Improving Literacy

13Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education Resources

CBCSE Cost Tool Kit Promotes the “ingredients method”: Determine all

resources required to implement an intervention, such as personnel, facilities, equipment and materials

Supports the collection of cost data and cost-effectiveness analyses

Developed with the funding from ED’s Institute for Education Sciences

Alpha version currently available free of cost

14Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education Resources

CBCSE Cost Tool Kit Includes:

Users manual Spreadsheets to list all ingredients required for an

intervention and to make any necessary adjustments (e.g., inflation, geographical location, and time of investment)

Database of Educational Resource Prices (national prices for the most common ingredients used in educational interventions)

Amortization Calculator (spread the costs of certain items such as facilities and equipment over expected life-time use)

Wage Converter (translate annual salaries into hourly rates or vice versa)