Average Four-Year Cost Per Graduate for Maine Public High Schools: Class of 2004

The results of this analysis appear in the tables titled “Average Four-Year Cost Per Graduate For Maine High Schools By School Size (Class of 2004)”. (The first table and graph represent school size breakdowns every 200 students with the exception of an additional breakout of schools with less than 100 students. The second table and chart represent school size breakdowns for every 100 students.) As the cohort shows, Maine high schools followed the economies of scale model with the lowest average cost per graduate being found in high schools with enrollments of 800-1000 students. Small high schools (especially those with enrollments of less than 200 students) had the highest average cost per graduate and those high schools with enrollments higher than 1000 students also showed increases in the average cost per graduate. Three island schools that had unusually high average cost per graduate compared to mainland schools were considered outliers and removed from the data set. However, even with these outliers removed the economies of scale model was clear. As may be seen from this data set, that while the economy of scale model declines appropriately for the state-wide data, there are exceptions in each enrollment category. That is, some high schools are more costly than others within each school size category. Consequently, further analysis is needed to determine why some high schools are more costly than others for graduating students