The Mexican Telesecundaria: a Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 076 059 EM 011 065 7 AUTHOR Mayo, John K.; And Others TITLE The Mexican Telesecundaria: A Cost-Effectiveness 1 Analysis. INSTITUTION Stanford Univ., Calif. Inst. for Communication Research. SPONS AGENCY Agency for International Development (Dept. of State), Washington, D.C. PUB DATE Mar 73 NOTE 173p. 1i EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC-$6.58 DESCRIPTORS *Cost Effectiveness; Developing Nation Educational Change; *Evaluation; Instructional Media; *Instructional Television; *Intermediate Grades; 1 Program Descriptions; Rural Education; Secondary Education IDENTIFIERS Mexico; *Telesecundaria ABSTRACT " Telesecundaria" has for the past six years attempted to provide secondary education (grades 7-9) by television to those :5); students who would normally not be able to continue their education beyond the primary level. The study reported here aimed to evaluate ; the system, especially its cost-effectiveness, suggest strategies for improvement, and make Mexico's experience available to other nations wishing to use technology to expand education opportunity. ) le Characteristics of the Telesecundaria system, the evaluation 11,s methodology, costs of the television and conventional systemsper pupil, the ability of the two systems to satisfy educational demand, 6 the results in terms of student learning and attitudes, andsome general conclusions and strategies are reported. (Author /RH) 1° C 3 FILMED FROM BEST AVAILABLE COPY 1 THE MEXICAN TELESECUNDARIA: A COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS BY JOHN K.. MAYO EMILE G. MCANANY STEVEN J-..KLEES THE MEXICAN TELESECUNDARIA: A COST-EFFECTIVENESSANALYSIS by John K. Mayo Emile G. McAnany Steven J. Klees U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATIONORIG- INATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPIN- IONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU- CATION POSITION OR POLICY Institute for Communication,Research Stanford University March,;1973 Work performed under Contract No. AID/csd 3284 between the Agency for International Development and the Institute for Communication Research, Stanford University Stanford, California. Points of view expressed hereinare not necessarily those of the Agency for International Development. Acknowledgements The evaluation of Mexico'sTelesecundariawas a col- laborative effort between the AudiovisualDepartment of the MexicanSecretariat of Public Education (SEP)and the Institute forCommunication Research at StanfordUniversity. Many personscontributed to the study, both inMexico and at Stanford. The field research was carried out withtireless dedica- tion by the following members of theAudiovisual Department's evaluation t=am: Alicia Ariza Rodriguez Alicia Buenrostro Millen Isabel Calvo Lopez Miguel Castro Duque Jacinto DelgadoCastro Berta Flores Salinas Consueld Garc(a dela Parra Marta EugeniaHerrera Puente Marta RomanaHerrera Scaccioni Marco Antonio JassoCantu _Eneyda Reyes Ortuilo Ines Dulce MartaVergara Rosillo MartaEugenia VergaraRosillo Without their helpand the leadershipof the Department's 0 director, Dra. Mamadel Carmen Millan,and Prof. Antonio Noguez Raml'rez, chief of the TechnicalSection, the study could not have beendone. Dr. Wilbur Schramm, director of the Institutefor Communication Research, provided encouragementand wise counsel throughoutthe study andwas a particularly helpful critic of an earlier draft of this report. Bob Hornik, Dean Jamison, Osvaldo Kreimer, JudyMayo, and Ellen Wilson were also extremely helpful in reviewingsections of this report and in preparingthe final draft. Finally, we wish to thank the many students,teachers, state supervisors, and SEP administratorswho graciously gave of their time in the course of thestudy, and we hope the results willbe of benefit tothem. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables Summary vi Background vi Input characteristicsof the Telesecundaria and regular secondary schools vii Output characteristicsof the Telesecundaria and regular secondaryschools The future of Telesecundaria xiii Scope of this report xiv I. Background of the Study 1 Characteristics of the Telesecundaria system 1 The methodology of this study 8 II. Input Componentsof the Telesecundariaand Ensenanza Directs Systems 14 School and community characteristics 16 Student characteristics 18 Teacher characteristics and behavior 21 Costs of theTelese-undaria and Enserianza Directa 25 System Performance of the Telesecundariaand EnseWanzaDirecta 39 Producing graduates 40 Satisfying educational demand 43 iii IV. Outputs of the Telesecundariaand Ensetanza Pirecta Systems 48 Description of evaluationareas, instruments and procedures 49 Results of studentoutput measures 56 Conclusions on learning 70 Aspirations: more schooling,better jobs, and higher salaries 72 The follow-up studyof Telesecundaria. graduates 82 Attitudes: Affectiveresponse to change in society 86 Opinions about theTelesecundaria system 91 V. The Future of Telesecundaria . 98 Short range alternativesfor the develop- ment of Telesecundaria 102 Long range alternativesfor the develop- ment of Xelesecundaria 110 Appendices A. Student questionnaire 119 B. Notes on cost estimatesand comparisons 131 C. Additional tables forChapter IV 137 D. Telesecundaria programming:Costs of video-taping production 150 References 152 iv LIST OF TABLES I-1 Student Enrollmentin Telesecundaria 1-2 Telesecundaria Subjects 3 by Grade 6 II-2. Student Samplesby Area and System Instructional 11-2 15 Parents' Educationby Instructional 11-3 Annual Cost System 20 per Student of EnsenanzaDirecta and Telesecundaria- 1972 11-4 Sources of Funding 28 11-5 31 Annual ProgramProduction Costs of daria Telesecun- 11-6 Annual Cost 32 per Student of EnsenanzaDirecta vs. Telesecundariaas Student Enrollment Increases 11-7 34 Annual Costper Student of Ensenanza in the Environment Directa of Telesecundaria 36 III-1 Number of Graduates of Telesecundariavs. EnsenanzaDirecta 111-2 Rate of Demand 44 Satisfaction ofTelesecundaria vs. Ensenanza Directa 46 IV-1 Results of Beforeand After Achievement for Telesecundaria Testing IV-2 and EnsenanzaDirecta 58 Results of Beforeand After Achievement for Telesecundarie Testing IV-3 by state 60 Results of Beforeand After Achievement for Ensenanza Testing IV-4 Directa by State 61 Test Resultsfrom the Otis, Tests for Analogy and Number Telesecundaria Students,Total and by GeographicalAreas IV-5 Pearson Correlations 63 of General Abilityand Achievement Tests for Mathematics,Spanish and Chemistry forTelesecundaria 1V-6 Educational and 65 Occupational Aspirationsof Students ofTelesecundaria and Ensenanza Directa IV-7 74 Pearson Correlationsfor Student and Background Aspirations Factors forTelesecundaria and AnsenanzaDirecta IV-8 Reactions of 77 Telesecundaria Studentsto Statements aboutthe Television IV-9 System 93 Student Preferencestoward Specific Lessons (Telesecundaria Television only) 96 SUMMARY Background In 1972, members of the Institutefor Communication Research at Stanford University, inconjunction with the Mexican Secretariat of Public Education(SEP), conducted an evaluation of the latter's Telesecundariasystem, a six-year-old project using televisionto provide secondary school (grades 7-9) to students who,because of their distance from regular schools and otherfactors, would normally not be able to continue theireducation beyondthe primary level. This report summarizes the largeamount of field research that was carriedout as part of this study by members of the Secretariat'sDepartment of AudiO- visual Education (Direceigh General de EducationAudiovisual y DivulgaciOn) withStanford's collaboration. The study hadthree basic objectives: 1) to evaluatethe Telesecundaria system and particularlyits cost-effectiveness; 2) to suggestpossible strategies for its improvement;and 3) to makeMexico's experience with Telesecundariaavailable to other nationswho are also anxious to use televisionand other technologies to expandeducational opportunity. Because strategies for extendingor reforming education often requireincreased expenditures of scarce publicfunds, they are limitedby very real financial constraints. For vi this reason, decision-makers seekalternatives thatare both pedagogically sound and within thebounds of present and projected future budgets. By analyzingTelesecundaria's current performance and costs alongsidesome alternative strategies for the expansion of secondaryeducation in Mexico, the evaluation was designed to contributein a positiveway to the decision-maker'stask. Although the Telesecundaria is meantto complement rather than compete with the regularsecondary school system, a comparative Cost-effectiveness framework was selectedfor the evaluation. Accordingly, samplesof 9th gradeclasses from the Telesecundaria and the regularsecondary were selected randomly from within a four state region, andthe input and output characteristics of the two systemswere compared. Costs of the two systems were analyzedin detail aswere the achievementlevels and attitudes of students. The systems' current and potential abilities to satisfyeducational demand and produce more secondary graduateswere also evaluated in some detail. Input characteristicsof the Telesecundaria schools and regular secondary School and community characteristics. The majority of Telesecundaria schools (teleaulas) consistof two or three rooms which have beenleased, donated, or built by localparents' associations. In contrast, regular secondaryschools are larger, more formal, institutions which are financedby the federal