Gerald Roth

Date of Award

5-1-1979

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Teaching & Learning

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships among variables important in policy analysis for the state financing of second ary education. Basic to this task was analyzing the relationship among variables presently considered in school finance policy. To guide the analysis of the variable relationships the following study questions were generated: 1. Is there a relationship between per pupil expenditure and the number of courses offered in secondary schools? 2. Is there a relationship between foundation support and the number of courses offered in secondary schools? 3. Is there a relationship between foundation support and per pupil expenditure in secondary schools? 4. Does school size reduce the correlation between per pupil expenditure and the number of course offerings? 5. Can the number of courses offered by a district be predicted by one or more of the following: student enrollment, per pupil valuation, student density, leeway mills and faculty positions?

Procedure: The SPSS SCATTERGRAM SUBPROGRAM (Nie et al., 1975) was utilized in treating the data pertinent to the first three questions. Question 4 was answered by computing a partial correlation with the SPSS PARTIAL CORR SUBPROGRAM (Nie et al., 1975). Stepwise forward multiple regres sion, which is a product of the SPSS REGRESSION PROGRAM (Nie et al., 1975), was used as the statistical test in question 5.

The study population consisted of all public high school dis tricts operating during the 1976-1977 school term, with the exception of those districts contracting for services with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In the analysis process the individual district data were related to the total population data and comparable size district data. Total population was referred to as the Total Group. The total popula tion was also broken down into four subgroups: enrollment size 1-74 as Subgroup I (N=94); enrollment size 75-149 as Subgroup II (N=78); enrollment size 150-449 as Subgroup III (N=60) and enrollment size 550 and greater as Subgroup IV (N=15).

Findings: 1. A limited linear relationship existed between the variables per pupil expenditures and course offerings. 2. A strong linear relationship existed between the variables foundation support and course offerings for the Total Group and the four size subgroups. 3. A variation was found in the relationship between the vari ables per pupil expenditure and foundation support among the Total Group and the four size subgroups. 4. The correlation between the variables per pupil expendi tures and course offerings was altered through controlling the influ ence of size on the relationship. 5. The variable faculty consistently accounted for the largest amount of the variance in course offerings in comparison to high school enrollment, per pupil valuation, density and leeway mills for the Total Group as well as the four size subgroups.

Conclusions: 1. Per pupil expenditure had limited value as an indicator of course offerings. 2. The strong linear relationship between the variables founda tion support and course offerings for the Total Group and the four size subgroups suggested that foundation support was a useful indicator of course offerings. 3. Because of the large variation in the data reported for the Total Group and the four size subgroups it was not possible to arrive at a general conclusion relative to the relationship between foundation support and per pupil expenditure. 4. The correlation between the variables per pupil expenditure and course offerings was altered by controlling for size as a variable. 5. The number of faculty positions is a better indicator of the number of courses offered in a school than high school enrollment, per pupil valuation, density and leeway mills. This observation applies to the Total Group and the four size subgroups.

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