Issue Brief #2: Metrics for Improving Cost Accountability (Hint: Not More Detailed Cost Accounting...)

Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity and Accountability. Available from: Delta Cost Project at American Institutes for Research. 1000 Thomas Jefferson Street NW, Washington, DC 20007. Tel: 202-403-5410; e-mail: deltacost@air.org; Web site: http://www.deltacostproject.org

N

6

Costs; Accountability; Measurement; Educational Finance; Higher Education; Cost Effectiveness; Tuition; Student Costs; Expenditure per Student; Income; Financial Support

Most fiscal reporting focuses on revenues (whether or not they go to core purposes), tuition and fees, and financial aid. "How" the money is spent is something that remains shrouded in too much mystery. Several national efforts to address this problem have largely come to naught--probably because those common methodologies are simultaneously not nuanced enough for internal audiences, and far too detailed for policy-level work. In the hope of advancing the discussion, the Delta Project has developed several recommendations for aggregate measures of costs for policy audiences. Using data already in the public domain through the National Center for Education Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the measures can be displayed for individual institutions, or aggregated into sector-level measures. They help policymakers--board members, state officials, and federal audiences--see simple patterns that will help them answer questions about where the money comes from; who's paying for higher education; where the money goes; and what it buys.

ERIC

2012

ED535371