Good classroom management can help meet the demands in recent years of inclusion and increased professionalism in the Danish primary and lower secondary school. The focus of the international research literature has been on the positive effects of classroom management, while the costs associated with classroom management interventions have been less documented.
The purpose of this project is to shed light on the costs associated with classroom management interventions and to relate these to the effects created. The analysis is based on the project “Supplementary training of teachers in introductory schooling” (ELI).
To analyse cost-effectiveness, the Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) method is used, where the costs of ELI are compared to the effects created on students’ ability to concentrate. The analysis is based on cost data, which among other things is collected from Metropol that provided the supplementary education. The effects used are taken from a previous analysis of ELI.
On the basis of a positive correlation between the number of years of education and the disposable aggregate lifetime income, the longer-term economic effects of ELI are also estimated.
Main results
The analysis shows that the operating costs of ELI are approx. DKK 16,000 per teacher (level in 2015) and approx. DKK 700 per student. This corresponds to a cost of just over DKK 2,700 per student to increase the ability to concentrate with one unit.
Furthermore, it is estimated that the long-term effect on students’ disposable aggregate lifetime income is between approx. DKK 100 and just under DKK 20,000 per student. For the lower part of this interval, the cost per student are higher than the gains per student. Assuming that participation in the course will also affect teachers’ future students, the operating costs are reduced to just under DKK 50 per student while the average gain will be between just under DKK 100 and just over DKK 18,000 per student.
Thus, the analysis indicates that interventions aimed at teachers, and thus the students they teach, can potentially have large gains at relatively low costs.
Links
Højbjerre Brauer Schultz og SFI -Det Nationale Forskningscenter for Velfærd (2015): Opfølgende økonomisk analyse af projektet "Efteruddannelse af lærere i indskolingen" (ELI).
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