Abstract:
The problem, The problem of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between sick leave utilization by professionaf staff members in Iowa public school districts and the number of sick leave days allowed to accumulate. Two
other factors, size af district and average teacher's salary, were selected as covariates because of their relationship to the dependent variable.
Procedure. The population of this study was the 350 Iowa public school districts who operated under a collective bargaining agreement during the 1982-83 academic year. Four main variables were established for purposes of analysis. Data on each of the four variables, relating to the 1982-83
academic year, were obtained for 336 school districts which equaled a 36 percent participation level. Frequency distributions, means, standard deviations, ranges, Pearson product moment correlations, and analysis of covariance were statistical procedures employed in this study. The analysis of covariance was utilized to test the
null hypothesis.
Findings. After controlling for the variables, average teacher's salary and size of district, the major independent variable, number of sick leave days allowed to accumulate, had no affect on the average number of sick leave days utilized per teacher. The only relationship found was a positive one between size of district and average number of sick leave days used per teacher.
