[NLA] Return on Investment

[Eileen Eckert]

Hi all,
I agree with Debbie that even getting into the return on investment question 
implies that it has a widespread acceptance as a legitimate concern. Rather 
than trying to answer the question of what the average return on investment 
is for participation in literacy programs, we could be (as some are) trying 
to help people take a more humanistic and complex view of the issue.

(By the way, can anyone on the list quantify the ROI for a bachelor's 
degree, or a master's, or a Ph.D. or Ed.D.? In Education vs. Engineering, 
say? If you can, can you just give a number, or do you have to explain it? 
Do you, maybe, find it just a bit offensive to be asked, as if your purpose 
for living and learning can be reduced to your monetary contribution to the 
economy?)

What if there were such research? What would it take to isolate 
"participation in literacy instruction" as a variable from the almost 
infinite number of other variables that interact to affect people's lives? 
Could you ever be confident of establishing a cause-effect relationship 
between participation in literacy education and economic benefits? And, to 
turn the question around a bit, would the resulting information be <worth> 
the effort, money, distraction of attention from other things, that doing 
such research would require--in other words, what would be the ROI on the 
research (not worth it, in my opinion!)

Eileen






From: AWilder106 at aol.com
Reply-To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: Re: [NLA] Return on Investment
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 18:19:57 -0500

Ira,

There is a strong cse to be made for the return on investment way of 
thinking, and Tom Sticht makes it best, he made it again maybe 6 weeks 
ago--I could be wrong on the timing.

Coupled with other measures I like the ROI use. It is also flexible--what is 
the outcome (whatever measures) for x amount of input.

Yes,I know it makes people really angry when I use it on this list, but 
there you have it.

I use it in my own life, I find it useful.

The main criticism is that it turns people into commodities, I don't buy 
that, so I think it is useful to use along with other measures.  It takes 
work, though.

Its use does not negate anything Debbie says.  Instead, I might  want to ask 
a questioner:  What does that phrase mean to you?  People mean diffrent 
things by  the phrase.

You asked if there are other views, and, yes, there are.

Andrea
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