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Educational Management

Notes tool, in that it is designed to ascertain which means of attaining particular educational goals are
most efficient.
• Cost-effectiveness analysis is closely related to cost-benefit analysis in that both represent
economic evaluations of alternative resource use and measure costs in the same way (see Cost-
Benefit Analysis). However, cost-benefit analysis is used to address only those types of alternatives
where the outcomes can be measured in terms of their monetary values. For example, educational
alternatives that are designed to raise productivity and- income, such as vocational education,
have outcomes that can be assessed in monetary terms and can be evaluated according to cost-
benefit analysis.
• The purpose of cost-effectiveness analysis in education is to ascertain which program or
combination of programs can achieve particular objectives at the lowest cost. The underlying
assumption is that different alternatives are associated with different costs and different
educational results.
• Cost-effectiveness analysis was developed in the 1950s by the United States Department of
Defense as a device for adjudicating among the demands of the various branches of the armed
services for increasingly costly weapons systems with different levels of performance and
overlapping mission.

• The basic technique has been to derive results for educational effectiveness of each alternative
by using standard evaluation procedures or studies.
• Assessing Effectiveness
• Once the problem has been formulated, it will be necessary to consider how to assess the
effectiveness of alternatives. For this purpose, clear dimensions and measures of effectiveness
will be needed.
• Cost Estimation
• The costs of an intervention are defined as the value of the resources that are given up by
society to effect the intervention.
• Accordingly, the method sets out systematically to identify and ascertain the value of the
ingredients that are required for each alternative that is under consideration.
• The ingredients approach to cost estimation entails three distinct phases : (a) identification of
ingredients; (b) determination of the value or cost of the ingredients and the overall costs of an
intervention; and (c) an analysis of the costs in an appropriate decision-oriented framework.
• Most educational interventions are labor-intensive, so an initial concern is to account for the
number and characteristics of personnel.
• The primary sources for such data are written reports, observations, and interviews. Written
reports, usually contain at least a brief history and description of the intervention.
• Ingredients can be divided into those that are purchased in reasonably competitive markets,
and those that are obtained through other types of transactions.
• Although the market prices of some ingredients such as personnel can often be obtained from
accounting data for educational enterprises, such data are not reliable sources for ascertaining
overall program costs.
• Once each of the ingredients is costed, these can be added to obtain a total cost for the intervention.
• The two most important concerns for cost summary and analysis are.
(a) The appropriate unit for expressing costs and (b) who pays the costs.
• The question of the appropriate unit for expressing costs depends upon how effectiveness is
measured and the nature of the decision.

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