Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

Rural Illinois communities are experiencing declining enrollment and population shifts resulting in the closure of local schools and community changes. This research explores the occurrence of changes in community well-being following the loss of the local high school when compared to similar communities with schools that enrolled the students and communities with unchanged schools. Community well-being is defined as attributes categorized as social, economic and housing characteristics measured by United States Census Bureau data. The sample was comprised of communities designated as rural distant or rural remote urban-centric locale codes, having comparable populations and a local high school recognized by the Illinois State Board ofEducation (ISBE). Descriptive statistics were provided for variables and presented for each by subset and time of measurement. Research questions were addressed by conducting a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) across the three types of communities and used to analyze each community well-being characteristic. Data were computed by subtracting the year 1990 measurement from the year 2000 measurement so that positive numbers indicate an increase and negative numbers indicate a decrease in a characteristic presented and discussed. Findings are generalized in terms of negative and positive changes in community well-being in the areas of social, economical and housing characteristics. Research indicates that those communities that lost local schools experienced a higher number of changes perceived as negative. Communities that grew by accepting students from the closed schools were impacted both positively and negatively. Finally, communities with unchanged local schools experienced the fewest number of negative changes.

Download

Share

COinS