In short
- The cost of a reading program has six parts: materials, licences, staff time, training, devices and upkeep.
- Staff time is often the largest part, and it never appears on an invoice.
- Compare options on two numbers: the full cost per pupil per year, and the staff hours per week.
- Count every ingredient, whoever pays for it, and check the figures again after a pilot and after the first year.
Reading programs are hard to compare on price because they do different jobs. One quote covers texts, quizzes and records. Another covers only a quiz tool, and the school supplies the books and the marking. Levin and McEwan (2001) set out a method for costing education programs that fits this problem: list every resource the program uses, then put a value on each. This guide applies that method to a school reading program, with a worked example for an invented school.
How much does a school reading program cost?
A school reading program costs what its ingredients cost. There are six: materials, licences, staff time, training, devices and upkeep. No single figure is right for every school. Compare options on two numbers: the full cost per pupil per year, and the staff hours each option takes per week.
Staff time deserves the most attention. Levin and Belfield (2015) note that personnel usually make up at least three-quarters of the cost of traditional education programs, and a high share even of technology-heavy ones. So a cheaper licence that leaves the school to write questions and build reports can cost more in total.
This guide gives no prices for any product. Prices change, and they depend on the number of pupils and on what is included. The method below works with any quote.
Count the ingredients, not the invoice
Levin and McEwan (2001) describe the ingredients method of costing. Levin and Belfield (2015) summarise its three main steps. First, identify every resource the program needs. Second, put a value on each one. Third, add them up to get the total cost and the average cost per participant.
Two rules in the method matter for schools. First, budgets are not enough. Levin and Belfield (2015) warn that cost figures taken from budgets will almost always be incomplete. Second, every ingredient counts, whoever provides or pays for it. In a school, that means volunteers, donated books and computers you already own all go on the list.
In practice, the method becomes five steps:
- List the ingredients. Texts, licences, the hours of each person involved, training, devices and upkeep.
- Value each one. Use the quote for bought items. For staff time, multiply the hours by an hourly cost your finance office agrees.
- Spread one-off costs. Divide a purchase by the number of years you expect to use it.
- Add up and divide. Take the total cost for one year and divide it by the number of pupils.
- Note who pays. The school, a parents' association or a donor. This changes the budget line, not the cost.
The last step comes from the method too. Levin and Belfield (2015) describe an optional step that shows how the cost is shared out. They advise reporting the full cost, before any subsidy, as the true cost of a program.
The six things that drive the cost
The table lists the six ingredients of a reading program, what each includes, and what is easy to miss.
| Driver | What it includes | Easy to miss |
|---|---|---|
| Materials | Graded readers, printed stories, worksheets | Replacing lost and worn books each year |
| Licences | Yearly fees per pupil, per teacher or per school | The renewal price after a first-year discount, and add-ons sold separately |
| Staff time | Setting up classes, writing or marking questions, chasing readers, building reports | The coordinator's hours, and time taken from other work |
| Training | First sessions for teachers, then follow-up support | Teachers who join in later years |
| Devices | Tablets, computers, headphones, internet access | Devices you already own still count, because their time is taken from other lessons |
| Upkeep | New accounts each year, technical support, updating class lists | Moving your records out if you change product |
Training
Budget for more than a first session. Sharples, Albers, Fraser and Kime (2019) write that effective professional development typically includes up-front training and follow-on support in school. They add that most effective professional development lasts at least two terms, and often longer.
Their guide is about school change in general, not reading platforms. It is still a fair warning against a training budget of one afternoon.
Devices
A device budget is not a reading program. Escueta, Nickow, Oreopoulos and Quan (2020) reviewed experimental research on education technology. For pupils in school, they found that giving a child a computer may have limited impacts on learning. Access on its own did not seem to advance learning. Count devices as an ingredient when the program needs them, and plan what pupils will read on them.
How to compare options: per pupil per year, and staff hours
Put every option into the same two units. The first is the full cost per pupil per year: all six ingredients for one year, divided by the number of pupils. The second is staff hours per week, counted on their own as well as inside the money figure.
Why count hours separately? An hour has a price, but a school cannot easily buy more of its teachers' hours. Kraft (2020) notes that fuller cost analyses count non-monetary costs too, such as the opportunity cost of educators' time.
Then set the cost against what pupils get. Kraft (2020) puts the principle simply: an effect from a lower-cost program is more impressive than a similar effect from a costlier one. Levin and Belfield (2015) add a caution. Cost-effectiveness comparisons are valid only when the options are comparable, including the measure of effect used.
Cost per pupil who actually reads
A cost per enrolled pupil can flatter a program that few pupils use. Divide the total by the pupils who read regularly as well. If 100 pupils are enrolled but only 60 read most weeks, the cost per active reader is two-thirds higher than the cost per pupil. Those numbers are invented to show the arithmetic.
An example cost worksheet (invented school, invented figures)
Here is the method applied to an invented school with 100 pupils in four classes, over 30 reading weeks. Option A is a paper library of graded readers, with quizzes and records kept by teachers. Option B is a platform licence that includes quizzes and records.
Every figure below is invented and rounded. None is a real price for any product, in any currency. Staff time is valued at an invented 20 per hour.
| Ingredient | Option A: paper library | Option B: platform licence |
|---|---|---|
| Materials | Readers bought once for 3,000 and used for 5 years: 600 | None: 0 |
| Licences | None: 0 | Invented quote: 3,000 |
| Staff time | 4 teachers × 1.5 hours × 30 weeks, plus 30 coordinator hours = 210 hours: 4,200 | 4 teachers × 0.5 hours × 30 weeks, plus 30 coordinator hours = 90 hours: 1,800 |
| Training | 4 teachers × 5 hours = 20 hours: 400 | 4 teachers × 5 hours = 20 hours: 400 |
| Devices | None: 0 | Share of tablets the school already owns: 500 |
| Upkeep | Replacing lost and worn books: 300 | Technical support, 10 hours: 200 |
| Total per year | 5,500 | 5,900 |
| Per pupil per year | 55 | 59 |
| Staff hours per week (staff time row ÷ 30 weeks) | 7 | 3 |
Reading the worksheet (invented figures)
Counting only what appears on invoices, with the books spread over five years, Option A costs 900 a year and Option B costs 3,000. A looks far cheaper.
With every ingredient counted, the gap is 4 per pupil per year. Option B also frees about four staff hours a week.
So the real question for this school is whether four staff hours a week are worth 400 a year, and which option gets more pupils reading.
A pilot can answer the second question. Only the school can answer the first.
Your figures will differ, and the two options may end up far apart. The worksheet is there to show the method, not the answer.
Hidden costs to ask about
Some costs appear only after you sign. Ask each vendor about them in writing, alongside check 10 of the Reading Platform Buyer's Checklist. Then add your own internal costs.
- The renewal price. What happens to the price per pupil after a first-year discount ends?
- Add-ons. Are extra levels, reports or features sold separately?
- Minimums. Is there a minimum number of pupils or a minimum contract length?
- Staff turnover. Who trains a teacher who joins in the second year, and at what cost?
- Time taken from other work. Which lessons or duties give way to the program?
- Leaving. Can you export your records if you change product, and at what cost?
The fifth item is the easiest to forget. Sharples et al. (2019) ask schools to consider what they can stop doing to create the space, time and effort for a new approach. If nothing stops, the hours come from somewhere nobody planned.
If you are weighing ready-made packs against writing your own, Buy vs. Build: Ready-Made Reading Packs or Your School's Own Stories? covers the staff time that writing takes.
Check the figures after a pilot and after the first year
A worksheet made before you buy holds estimates. Replace them with real figures twice. After a pilot, use the setup hours teachers actually logged. How to Run a Pilot of a Reading Platform lists cost and teacher time among the measures to collect.
After the first full year, recalculate with the hours you observed and the renewal price. Hours may fall as routines settle, or rise if a gap in the product needs work by hand. Compare the result with the option you turned down.
Then take the figure to the people who approve the budget. How to Pitch a Reading Platform to Your Principal shows where cost fits in a one-page case. EdTech ROI for Schools: How to Judge a Reading Program's Value covers the return side.
How iRead handles this
iRead is a paid platform sold to schools, with no free tier, so cost it with the same worksheet as any other option. Global packs ship with levelled stories, word lists, four word games and quizzes together. The games are regenerated every 24 hours from the story's vocabulary, with no teacher setup, and attendance at sessions is recorded automatically. A school can run a free pilot with one class for 4 to 6 weeks before any school-wide decision, and log its own staff hours during it.
The core principle: Count every ingredient, whoever pays for it. Then compare options per pupil per year and in staff hours per week.
See it in iRead: School leaders see levels reached, words retained and stories completed, by class, grade and term. A school can run a free pilot with one class for 4 to 6 weeks.
For school leadersKey takeaway
A reading program costs what all its ingredients cost, and staff time is often the largest. Put every option into cost per pupil per year and staff hours per week, then check the figures again after a pilot.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a reading program cost per pupil?
There is no single figure. It depends on what the program includes and what your staff must add. Work it out for your school. List materials, licences, staff time, training, devices and upkeep for one year, value each, add them up and divide by the number of pupils.
What are the hidden costs of a reading program?
Staff time is the largest: setting up, marking, chasing readers and building reports. Others include the renewal price after a first-year discount, add-ons sold separately, training for teachers who join later, devices, and the cost of moving your records if you change product.
Does staff time count as a cost if teachers are paid anyway?
Yes. Levin and Belfield (2015) count every resource a program uses, whoever pays for it. An hour a teacher spends marking quizzes is an hour taken from planning or teaching. Value it at an hourly cost your finance office agrees, and report the hours separately as well.
Is a free reading program really free?
Not in full. A free tool may still need texts, devices, training and staff hours to run. Count those ingredients the same way as for a paid product. The licence row of your worksheet is zero, but the other five rows are not.
How do I compare two reading programs on cost?
Put both into the same two units: full cost per pupil per year, and staff hours per week. Use the same number of pupils and the same period for both. Then set the cost against what pupils get, measured the same way for each option.
Sources
- Levin, H. M., & McEwan, P. J. (2001). Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Methods and Applications (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. collegepublishing.sagepub.com/products/cost-effectiveness-analysis-2-3141
- Levin, H. M., & Belfield, C. (2015). Guiding the development and use of cost-effectiveness analysis in education. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 8(3), 400-418. doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2014.915604
- Kraft, M. A. (2020). Interpreting effect sizes of education interventions. Educational Researcher, 49(4), 241-253. doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20912798
- Sharples, J., Albers, B., Fraser, S., & Kime, S. (2019). Putting Evidence to Work: A School's Guide to Implementation. Guidance Report (2nd ed.). Education Endowment Foundation, London. d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/eef-guidance-reports/implementation/EEF_Implementation_Guidance_Report_2019.pdf
- Escueta, M., Nickow, A. J., Oreopoulos, P., & Quan, V. (2020). Upgrading education with technology: Insights from experimental research. Journal of Economic Literature, 58(4), 897-996. doi.org/10.1257/jel.20191507