Award Date
1-1-1996
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Educational Leadership
Number of Pages
314
Abstract
Without question, the Clark County School District, centered in Las Vegas, Nevada, has experienced a pattern of tremendous growth over the last decade. During that period, dozens of new schools have been built to alleviate the overcrowded conditions, with many more being needed as the population continues to expand. According to the literature, however, bigger school districts do not always mean better educated students, and the Clark County School District consequently has had to contend with a growing number of vocal community members concerned about its size and the perceived problems that accompany it; In light of these facts, a telephone survey was conducted in Clark County using a random sample of adult citizens. The purpose of the survey was to ascertain the respondents' opinions on both the perceived problems of the Clark County School District as related to its size, as well as the proposed solutions to those problems. These items were gathered from public testimony given during several legislative hearings held during 1995 and 1996 to consider deconsolidating the Clark County School District. In addition, the respondents were asked to provide certain demographic information in order to compare their answers concerning the problems and solutions with their personal positions as members of the adult community. The subjects included randomly selected adult citizens residing within the geographic boundaries of the Clark County School District; Findings from this study do not support the opinions expressed during the legislative committee hearings indicating that the Clark County School District is becoming ineffective as an educational entity in Clark County. They do, however, correlate directly with the perception that CCSD is becoming increasingly inefficient because of its expanding size. In addition, there appears to be little disparity of opinion based on different demographic characteristics. With few exceptions, differences in living arrangements, household income, formal education, presence of children in Clark County School District schools, or voting history had little effect on the opinions expressed in this study.
Keywords
Clark County; Deconsolidation; Dist; District; Nevada; Opinion; Public; School
Controlled Subject
School management and organization; Demography; Educational sociology
File Format
File Size
5703.68 KB
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Permissions
If you are the rightful copyright holder of this dissertation or thesis and wish to have the full text removed from Digital Scholarship@UNLV, please submit a request to digitalscholarship@unlv.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.
Repository Citation
Lusk, Matthew Michael, "Public opinion and the deconsolidation of the Clark County School District" (1996). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 3022.
http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/8zed-7k6s
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
COinS