Review
"Every student in evaluation studies and all who aspire to become professional evaluators must have some minimal knowledge of cost-effectiveness. The content of this book should admirably serve that purpose and should be required reading in all programs that prepare professional evaluators both inside and outside the field of education."
(Darrell R. Lewis )
"I award the authors many accolades for an excellent treatment of a very complex topic which is now translated into useable materials for management."
(Jon S. Ebeling )
"Research shows that smaller class sizes generate benefits in the form of higher achievement. But does that mean that reducing class size is a cost-effective policy change? This book by Levin and McEwan provides the analytical tools and concepts for educational policy makers to address that and many other policy questions."
(Helen F. Ladd )
"Listing all of its virtues would be superfluous. Levin and McEwan have produced an excellent resource for teaching, a valuable handbook for practitioners, and a solid guide to research."
(David Plank )
". . . the presentation is lucid and the examples and math are not taxing. Furthermore, the pedagogical and other improvements in the text are more than marginal; they are major, and make the purchase of this second edition well 'worth it' even if you have the first."
(EVALUATION AND PROGRAM PLANNING, Vol 26.1 )
About the Author
Patrick J. McEwan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and an affiliate of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. Previously, he taught in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and served as Assistant Director of Research at the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He completed his PhD in education at Stanford University, in addition to master's degrees in economics and international development. His published books (with Henry Levin) include
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Methods and Applications, Second Edition (2001) and
Cost-Effectiveness and Educational Policy: 2002 Yearbook of the American Education Finance Association (2002). He is the author of numerous journal articles, book chapters, and reports, and he has consulted on education policy and evaluation at the Inter-American Development Bank, RAND, UNESCO, and the ministries of education of several countries. His recent research (with Martin Carnoy) has evaluated the impact of Chile's national voucher plan on the effectiveness and efficiency of primary education.
