Mandie Rose Weinandt's Research Journal

Weeks Five and Six

2008-07-13T19:48:00.000-07:00

First, I'd like to offer my apologies for the delay in posting. Weeks five and six were spent working with the data more and attempting a lit review. The data has had a few missing numbers and some of the older data is challenging to find and locate. The lit review has also been problematic as no other state runs their aid program like South Dakota and this program is only 12 years old. I've found some interesting documents on the South Dakota Department of Education website however, these haven't included much in the way of quantitative research. I am currently working through a 75 page qualitative study from 2006 completed by the State Aid Study Task Force. I hope to find more information soon.
The presentation with Dr. Ring and Dr. Allgrunn was very interesting and I enjoyed attending the NCUR conference with them.

Weeks Three and Four

2008-06-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

My apologies for the delay in writing. The last few weeks have been very busy with a variety of things. Currently in my data, I have isolated all the consolidations and other changes in the districts for the time period and have the new years downloaded. Also, I'm reviewing a qualitative study performed by the State Aid Task Force in 2006. The Task Force was created by the SD legislature to discuss issues with the formula. Their goal did not appear to be ensuring the schools received adequate funding while keeping property taxes low but more to find ways to keep funding consistent and lowering the amount the state needs to contribute. They also researched other untapped sources of funding. This week, I will be at the 2008 CUR National Conference in St. Joseph, MN assisting Dr. Allgrunn (my advisor for U.Discover) and Dr. Ring in their seminar on using Micro-Databases for undergraduate research.

Weeks One and Two

2008-06-06T17:16:00.001-07:00

My first few weeks of research entailed a few meetings which included: learning about research ethics and safety, receiving direction from my advisor, and learning about creating a web page (which is still in progress). Additionally, my first, and most important, task in embarking upon my research journey is focused on the data. The data needs some clean-up, updating, and additions all of which take some time to achieve. A few of the issues I'm currently working through are: isolating changes in school districts for the time period (i.e. consolidations, eliminations, additions), understanding the variations between the school fiscal year and the property tax fiscal year and how these variations affect my research, researching other scholars and how they handled similar situations, and ensuring all data is accurate and up to date. Getting the data prepared and ready is, by far, the most laborious task of my project and my desire to ensure it is precise will add to this time intensity. This is very important to me as my project will be worthless if the data is not perfect!

The Discrete Decision of South Dakota School Boards to Opt-Out of the State Aid Formula-Brief Abstract

2008-06-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

In 1995 South Dakota enacted a new plan to support schools and keep property taxes low. Since then, around two-thirds of school districts have opted-out of the state aid formula to raise property taxes and increase revenues. This project uses a discrete mathematical model with duration analysis to determine what factors contribute to a school board’s decision to opt-out and what changes could be made to improve the current state aid formula. By pinpointing the specific reasons for opting out, this project seeks to understand the true problems school districts in South Dakota face today and propose solutions.