Date of Award

5-2015

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

David Van Heemst

Second Advisor

Stephen Lowe

Third Advisor

Jeffrey S. Williamson

Scholarship Domain(s)

Scholarship of Discovery

Abstract

Within major metropolitan cities the public school system receives the majority of its funding by way of local property taxes. In areas of economic decay, property values, and the associated taxes collected, are declining. Recent tax limiting legislation has hampered the ability of school districts to increase property tax rates to make up for lost revenue. Reduced state funding, combined with declining property values, has widened the chasm of funding inequity in urbanized school districts. Seeking to better understand the relationship between publicized school quality indicators and local property values, this researcher reviewed 14,279 properties spread across 26 school districts within a densely populated Midwestern metropolitan area.

Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient was employed to measure the relationship between three school quality indicators: (1) per-pupil spending; (2) student performance on standardized tests; and (3) teacher-pupil ratios and property values within the school catchment area.

Student performance on standardized test scores was found to be directly related to local property values (r(14,279) = .432, p = .01 (r2 te = .19)). Per-pupil spending (r(14,279) = -.277, p = .01 (r2 se = .08)) and teacher-pupil ratios (r(14,279) = -.094, p = .01 (r2 ce = .01) were determined to be indirectly related, albeit to a lesser extent. This lead to the conclusion that schools seeking to enhance property valuation, and associated property taxes, within their catchment area should focus on improving student performance on standardized test scores within the school.

Comments

Ed.D. dissertation completed in 2015 for Olivet Nazarene University.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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