Washington State Common Core Implementation Costs

Randy Dorn, Alan Burke and Edie Harding (WashingtonState Officials): 

On 10.15.12, I sent this comprehensive report to you, "States' Taxpayers Cannot Afford Common Core Standards," by Henry W. Burke, 10.15.12.

http://educationviews.org/states-taxpayers-cannot-afford-common-core-standards/

Today, I prepared an analysis of the "WashingtonState Common Core Implementation Costs" (shown below) especially for you.  This analysis is based on my report and the Pioneer Institute white paper.  I strongly encourage you to realistically examine the costs of implementing the Common Core Standards. 

Is the State of Washington prepared to lose (spend) $331 million on a mediocre set of education standards?  

Henry W. Burke 

E-mail: hwburke@cox.net  

______________________________________

Washington State Common Core

Implementation Costs

by Henry W. Burke

11.07.12

I will call your attention to an excellent Pioneer Institute report, "National Cost of Aligning States and Localities to the Common Core Standards," dated February 2012 (PI report) and my report, "States' Taxpayers Cannot Afford Common Core Standards," by Henry W. Burke, dated 10.15.12 (Burke report).  These are the links to the reports:

http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/pdf/120222_CCSSICost.pdf

http://educationviews.org/states-taxpayers-cannot-afford-common-core-standards/

I also wrote a companion report applicable to the states that did not adopt the Common Core Standards, "Non-Common Core States Will Save Millions of Dollars," by Henry W. Burke, 10.18.12:

http://educationviews.org/non-common-core-states-will-save-millions-of-dollars/

I encourage you to realistically evaluate the costs versus the benefits for the State of Washington.  I will focus only on the cost of implementing the Common Core Standards (CCS) versus the dollar awards received from the federal government.

I thought I would offer a little insight into the CCS implementation costs.  This explanation includes the Pioneer report figures and my assumptions.  Obviously, I cannot speak for the Pioneer Institute nor its partners in the white paper, Accountability Works and Pacific Research Institute.  These are strictly my thoughts, assumptions and calculations.

The Pioneer Institute report identified four cost categories for CCS implementation.  The categories are: Testing, Professional Development, Textbooks, and Technology.  Pioneer calculated the total CCS implementation cost over a 7-year time period. 

 The PI report included bar graphs (without dollar figures) for each state in Professional Development, Textbooks, and Technology.  The Appendices to the PI report showed exact dollar figures for each state in only the Textbooks and Technology categories.  This is the link to the Pioneer Institute Appendices:

http://www.accountabilityworks.org/photos/Appendices.Common_Core_Cost.AW.pdf

Consequently, I had to derive figures for Testing and Professional Development for each of the 46 states.  My goal was to duplicate the Pioneer figures as closely as possible.  My nationwide totals for the four categories agree quite closely with the Pioneer Institute report. 

A.  Washington State CCS Loss

The State of Washington submitted a proposal to the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) for Phase 2 of the Race to the Top (RTTT) program and received a Rank of No. 32 in that competition.  Washington obtained zero dollars in Phase 1 and Phase 2 of RTTT.  (Washington did not submit a proposal for Phase 1.)  The 12 "winning" states under Phase 1 and Phase 2 of RTTT received a total of $3.94 billion.  In subsequent competitions, Washington received $34,329,658 ($34.330 million) in competitive stimulus awards.

According to my Table 8, Competitive Stimulus Awards, WashingtonState was ranked No. 21 in competitive grants per student, with $33 per student.

In the Burke Table 1, CCS Loss Per State, the CCS Total Cost for WashingtonState is $365.092 million; and the federal competitive award total is $34.330 million.  The difference is $330.762 million.

[$365.092 million - $34.330 million = $330.762 million]

This means WashingtonState will have to find $330.8 million to pay for the implementation expense of CCS.

B.  Washington State CCS Cost

In Table 2, CCS Cost Per Student, we can see that Washington has a CCS Cost per Student of $353.  This is slightly below the average cost per student of $379 (average cost for the 46 CCS states).

Table 3, Total CCS Cost, lists the components making up the Total CCS Cost of $365.092 million for WashingtonState.  Testing cost is $30.726 million; Professional Development cost is $103.208 million; Textbook cost is $61.909 million; and Technology cost is $169.249 million.

In round numbers, Washington will spend $31 million on Testing, $103 million on Professional Development, $62 million on Textbooks, and $169 million on Technology.  The Total CCS Cost for Washington will be $365 million.

Explanation of Figures

1.  Testing -- Testing is a function of the number of students tested.  Table 5 in my report shows the Total Nationwide Cost for the 46 CCS states.  My Table 5 duplicates Pioneer Figure 2B (on page 2 of the PI report).  Figure 2B shows a Total Testing Cost of $1,240,641,297. 

Table 6 (Burke report) lists the number of students and teachers in each of the 46 states; the total for the 46 states is 41,805,062 students.  I obtained all of the numbers in Table 6 from the Pioneer report Appendices (NCES: 2009 - 2010 School Year). 

When I divided $1,240,641,297 by 41,805,062 students, I obtained a factor of $29.67681993 per student.  This Testing cost factor was applied to each of the 46 states to get the Testing cost for each state.  My Total Testing Cost of $1,240.641 million agrees with the Pioneer Figure 2B number.

Washington State has a total student enrollment of 1,035,347 students.  When I multiplied 1,035,347 students by the $29.6768 factor per student, I obtained $30.726 million.

[1,035,347 students  x  $29.67681993 per student = $30,725,806]

2.  Professional Development -- The purpose of Professional Development is to train the teachers on the new Common Core academic standards.  Professional Development is a function of the number of teachers that must be trained.  Pioneer used a Professional Development cost of $1,931 per teacher.

Washington State has 53,448 teachers.  When I multiplied 53,448 teachers by $1,931 per teacher, I obtained $103.208 million.

[53,448 teachers  x  $1,931 per teacher = $103,208,088]

Incidentally, my calculations produced a Professional Development Cost for California of $605.938 million.  The PI report bar graph showed the number $606 million for California.  This verifies that my calculation assumptions and methodology are correct.

3.  Textbooks -- I obtained the Textbook cost for Washington State directly from the Pioneer Institute Appendix.  The Table in the Appendix showed a Total Textbook Cost for Washington of $61,908,492 ($61.909 million).

The PI Appendix listed the following numbers for Textbooks and Instructional Materials:

WashingtonTextbook Cost

(Millions of Dollars)

Grade	Textbook Cost ($ Millions)
K	5.337
1	5.152
2	4.153
3	4.326
4	3.940
5	3.934
6	4.527
Subtotal -- K - 6	31.369
7	4.623
8	4.668
9	5.326
Subtotal -- 7 - 9	14.617
10	5.026
11	5.416
12	5.481
Subtotal -- 10 - 12	15.923
Total -- K - 12	61.909

4.  Technology -- I obtained the Technology cost for WashingtonState directly from the Pioneer Appendix.  The PI Appendix lists the Total Technology Cost for Washington as $169,248,689 ($169.249 million).

The PI Appendix provides the following information:

Washington Technology Cost 

(Millions of Dollars)

Description	Technology Cost ($ Millions)	Total Technology Cost ($ Millions)
One-Time Costs	69.253	69.253
Year 1 Operations	7.443	7.443
Years 2 - 7 Operations (Annual)	15.4254	--
Total for 6 Years (Years 2 - 7)	92.553	92.553
Total Technology Cost		169.249

Please contact me if you would like copies of my two reports.

Henry W. Burke 

E-mail: hwburke@cox.net