Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Dissertation

Keywords

Education--Iowa--Finance; School size--Iowa;

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to construct a service cost index (SCI) for a sample of Iowa school districts and to use the SCI to examine the relationship school district size has to efficiency of educational services delivery. The SCI was based upon the computation of the cost of delivering a fixed market basket of services to a typical student in each of 44 randomly selected Iowa high schools. The Minimum Curriculum Requirements and Standards for Approved Schools, as outlined in the Code of Iowa, comprised the market basket of services. Instruction, administration, support, and transportation cost components comprised the SCI.

Relationships were examined by Pearson's product moment correlations between the SCI, component costs, average salary, pupil/teacher ratio, and school district enrollment. Significance of the correlation coefficients was tested at the .01 level. Simple regression analysis and curvilinear regression analysis were used to further analyze the data. Both a regression line and second degree polynomial curve were fitted to the data.

Study results indicated a significant negative relationship between the SCI and school district enrollment. Instructional, administrative, and transportation components were also negatively correlated with enrollment. A negative correlation was also obtained between pupil/teacher ratio and the SCI. A positive correlation between average teacher salary and the SCI was not found.

Year of Submission

1986

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Department of Educational Administration and Counseling

First Advisor

Robert Krajewski, Chair

Second Advisor

Donald Hanson, Co-chair

Date Original

12-1986

Object Description

1 PDF file (viii, 121 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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