The Relative Cost Effectiveness of In-Service Approaches in Remote, Sparsely Populated Schools

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of data obtained from the first 2 years of Project SPECTRE, a federally funded in-service training program for regular classroom teachers drawn from southern Nevada's remote, sparsely populated schools. Project SPECTRE was designed to assess the relative cost effectiveness of four types of in-service approaches, including instruction through independent study, by master teachers employed by the school district and by university instructors either on the university campus or on site. The 2-year results indicate that direct instruction of any sort produces gains in knowledge acquisition significantly superior to those obtained through independent study. In spite of its relatively lower initial costs, independent study was also found to be less cost effective than the direct-instructional approaches. Finally, of the three direct-instructional approaches, using university personnel in remote sites was found to be the most cost effective, followed, respectively, by the master-teacher and university-campus approaches.