Teachers College Prof. Henry Levin and Clive Belfield of Queens College (formerly of TC) are getting attention for "The Price We Pay: Economic and Social Consequences of Inadequate Education," an interesting book they edited that tries to calculate the costs to the economy of school failure. It's worth checking out because part of it tries to find interventions that actually work and then tries to figure out if they are cost effective. (Of course that calculation gets into all sorts of non-quantitative stuff like values, one's philosophy regarding the role of government and society's obligations to its members.) For example, the economists calculate that offering preschool the quality of the legendary Perry Preschool Project of 40 years ago to 100 children would produce an additional 19 high school graduates. But the study concludes that a high school reform program called First Things First provides far better bang for the buck.