POLICY DECISIONS ON IMPROVING SCIENCE-EDUCATION - A COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS

A form of policy analysis, cost‐effectiveness analysis, is described and applied to the question of the probable impact of a large number of actions advocated in professional and political circles for improving science education. After identifying the objectives sought, the costs and probable effectiveness of 69 widely advocated interventions were estimated. Because of the highly systemic nature of the situation, analysis of the 69 individual actions was only an intermediate step. Models of the interconnections among these actions were developed based on the research on effective schools and educational change. Clusters of interventions were identified which could be extended to recommendations for policy makers at various levels, e.g., local, state, and federal. Copyright © 1990 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company