CBCSE MISSION

Improving student outcomes through economic evaluation for evidence-based decisionmaking in education.

The mission of the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education is to promote the rigorous and responsible development and application of cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost methods. The Center builds on work that began in the 1970's and has pursued methodological improvements and new methods of analysis including a software platform, CostOut, for estimating costs using the ingredients method. Application topic areas include high school graduation, early child development, integrated school services, social and emotional learning, college completion, and many others. CBCSE also sponsors training programs in economic evaluation of education for researchers and decision-makers. Its latest summary of methods and applications is found in the third edition of H. Levin, P. McEwan, C. Belfield, A. B. Bowden, and R. Shand, Economic Evaluation of Education: Cost-Effectiveness and Benefit-Cost Analysis (Sage 2018)