The Satisfaction of Parents with their Community Schools as a Measure of Effectiveness of the Decentralization of a School System

Abstract

This research was designed to determine the significance of district type as an indicator of parental satisfaction with schools when compared to selected demographic variables. The relationships among these variables were ex plored through a correlational design (N = 1,000). Significant relationships between district type and attitudes (p < .001), and race and attitudes (p < .01), were found. Using Fisher's z, district type was significantly more positively related to attitude than race (p < .01). The implications seem to be that type of district is a more signifi cant indicator of parents' satisfaction with schools than parents' age, race, or socioeconomic status. PUBLIC EDUCATION has perhaps never been accused of being as irrelevant as it is today. The mode of operation of macro school systems,, as bu reaucratic organizations, thwarts the vital com munication between professional educators and the lay public. Various minorities, primarily the blacks and the young, are exerting pressures on the schools to share the decision-making process with them so as to make schools more responsive to the people. Many large school systems are re sponding to these pressures by decentralizing their macro organization into community school districts, aimed at reestablishing the historical role of schools as servants of the community. Decentralization is costly, particularly at a time when educational funds are indeed scarce, and yet decentralization is being implemented without adequate support from educational research, at the expense of human efforts and tax dollars. Therefore, it is the purpose of this study to pro vide some data to assist school systems who are planning to initiate decentralization, or have already begun to do so. The study sought to avail information relevant to these questions. (1) Are parents of a decen tralized community school district more satisfied with their schools than parents of a regular centralized district? (2) Is the type of school district a better indicator of a parent's satisfac tion with the schools than the parent's race or age?