Marginal cost of NCLB: $1.447 billion per year (in 2004 dollars), an 11 percent increase from Ohio's current $13.322 billion annual educational expenditures
Anticipated NCLB federal funds to cover these costs: $44 million for 2004
Administrative, Teacher, and Paraprofessional cost: $105 million (in 2004 dollars), 7 percent of total cost, including:

New math and reading proficiency tests in four grades that Ohio did not administer before. The study estimated the initial cost for developing all of the new tests to be $9.1 million and the annual cost for administering all the tests to be $25.6 million per year.

Student intervention costs: $1.386 billion (in 2004 dollars), 93 percent of the total cost.

The study was based on the assumption that intervention in the first four grades would be the most cost-effective way to raise pupil performance. Intervention cost for K-3 is $923.7 million per year and for grades 4-12 is $462.0 million.
Intervention services include: summer school, extended school day, intensive in-school intervention, academic coordination services (meaning, one-on-one supervision of pupil's progress), and early and on-going student assessment.

A report issued in January 2004, by the Ohio Department of Education, included ten outside expert critiques of this study. Two experts believe the analysis and costs are basically accurate, two believe that the study substantially underestimates the cost, three believe that the study substantially overestimates the cost, and three believe that the "assumptions and degree of speculation" the study is based upon substantially undermines the accuracy of the costs.
Eight of the outside experts express concern that the intervention costs are not based on research-based evidence.
The study did not consider efficiencies in the current use of existing funds. For example, three of the outside experts suggest that redeployment of existing professional development revenue would achieve the NCLB high quality professional development requirement. Also, four of the outside experts believe that funding preschool education programs would decrease the cost of bringing pupils to proficiency during later schooling.
The study assumed that current local, state, and federal funding will continue to support existing initiatives.

Implementation: None

The first group included the cost of developing and administering new performance tests, ensuring "highly qualified" teachers and paraprofessionals, offering "highly effective" professional development activities, and administrating the NCLB parent notification requirement of teacher qualifications.

In calculating student intervention costs, the experts examined what expenditures were necessary to "bridge the gap" between Ohio's 75 percent passage rate standard, and the NCLB 100 percent passage rate standard. To do this, the study used actual pupil performance data to determine how many pupils failed to meet the 100% proficiency standard, how far away they were from meeting the standard, and the characteristics of the low-performing pupils. This analysis was then applied to the current K-3 pupil population to separate the pupils into three groups by performance level.

The costs for different intervention strategies needed to bring each group to proficiency were then estimated. For example, the cost per pupil for summer school was calculated by adding together the cost of the following components: administrative costs (including principal, secretary, and custodial/security costs), transportation costs, and classroom costs (including teacher, instructional assistant, and teacher training costs).

After the full cost of compliance with the NCLB was assessed, it was offset by the overlapping existing expenditures and by additional NCLB funding anticipated from the federal government.

The study used performance data provided by the Ohio Department of Education. The study also considered suggestions and criticisms provided by the Ohio Department of Education, the staff of Columbus City School District and the Ohio Association of School Business Officials.