Abstract:
The problem: This study evaluates the effectiveness of a school needs assessment device which uses a monetary standard of measurement to appraise the value of high school curriculum areas.
Procedure. Three study groups composed of 146 students in grades 10, 11, and 121 48 certicated school staff; and 149 household residents of the Eagle Grove Community School District were surveyed. The study objective was to determine the significant differences among the three groups in rating the importance of fourteen high school curriculum areas using a monetary standard of measurement.
Findings. Analysis of the data was obtalned on each of fourteen curriculum areas to determine the
distributional shape of the three study group
population samples. Each of the fourteen curriculum areas indicated problems with outliers and problems with skewness. Since the population samples were large, the means for each of the three study groups within each of the fourteen curriculum areas were approximately normally distributed. Several multivariate and univariate analyses of the data were used to test the hypothesis that the sample means for the three study groups were equal for the fourteen
curriculum areas taken together. The results of the study indicated that seven of the fourteen curriculum areas show significant mean differences among the three study groups.
Conclusions. It was determined that these differences pointed out the diversity of the respondents and the possible methodological and geographical limitations imposed by the particular area in which the study was carried out.
A broader representation of ethnic and racial population groups is suggested in replicating this study. The results of research in other schools would be contingent on these factors.
