Abstract
The Problem. The study's intent was to determine if trustees from differing sized school districts discharged their state-mandated duties in significantly different ways. Selected variables were size of school district, trustee length of service, type of school district, superintendent tenure, trustee sex, and trustee training session attendance. It was hypothesized that trustees from differing sized school districts do not differ significantly with regard to degree of delegation used in discharging state-mandated duties for school operations, finance, employees, facilities, pupils, and instruction. Two major research questions were proposed: (1) To what degree do school trustees in California delegate duties mandated to them in the California Education Code ? (2) How do trustees in small school districts compare with trustees in large school districts with regard to degree of delegation used in discharging state-mandated duties? In addition, five ancilliary questions were treated statistically. Methodology. The Education Code revealed 293 duties that trustees were mandated to discharge. An expert panel of trustees was utilized to determine which duties were most important to discharge. A questionnaire was mailed to 388 small and large districts. Statistical data was analyzed with the one- and two-way ANOVA, Tukey B post hoc test, t test, and Cronbach's Alpha. Selected Results. (1) Trustees from differing sized districts tended toward shared delegation in discharging state duties. (2) Trustees with varying years of experience tended toward shared delegation when discharging state duties. (3) Mean scores of trustees from differing types of districts were significantly different in discharging state duties. (4) No significant differences were found between male and female trustees. (5) No significant differences were found because of the varying length of service of trustees. Selected Conclusions. (1) Significant differences were found as trustees from differing types of districts discharged state duties. (2) Significant differences were found between trustees from varying sized districts in discharging state duties for school finance, employees, facilities, pupils, and instruction.