Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Tweed R. Ross / The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the length of tenure of a superintendent and academic achievement as defined by the percentage of students who scored “Proficient” or better on the 2008 Third Grade Kansas Reading Assessment. To put this relationship into context, five other predictive variables were included as a part of this study: the individual’s total length of experience as a superintendent, the individual’s total length of experience in education, each district’s assessed valuation per pupil, each district’s percentage of students who qualified for free or reduced meal prices, and each district’s total student headcount. To gain the most comprehensive view possible, all 295 Kansas school districts in existence in 2008 were included in this study. The backward method of multiple regression was utilized to analyze these data. Before performing this analysis, the researcher first checked to ensure that the assumption of no multicollinearity had been met. From this analysis, all six predictive variables were retained as no relationships between them were found to be too strong. Following this check, the backward method of multiple regression analysis was performed. This method of multiple regression seeks to create the most parsimonious model, so two of the predictive variables were excluded from the final summary model based on removal criterion, the significance value of the t-test of each predictive variable. Results of this study revealed that 9.9% of the variance in the dependent variable, the percentage of students who scored “Proficient” or better on the 2008 Third Grade Kansas Reading Assessment, was accounted for by the predictive variables in the model retained. Further, multiple regression analysis tested the unique contributions of the four remaining predictive variables. Although included as one of the four predictive variables that had a significant effect on the percentage of students who scored “Proficient” or better on the 2008 Third Grade Kansas Reading Assessment, the primary focus of this study – to examine the impact a superintendent’s length of tenure has on students’ academic achievement – proved to have the least relative impact, according to beta weights.

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<p> The purpose of this study is to investigate the McMaster commuter distribution. The total analysis is carried out in two subanalyses. The first analysis examines the effect that different variables have on the mean trip length of various commuter groups. The variables examined in the first analysis are: residential tenure, occupation, duration of service or study, parking permit ownership and part-time versus full-time status of students. In general the first analysis is concerned with the mean trip length of on campus Faculty, Staff, and Students. The first analysis verified that residential tenure is an important variable in that students who commute from the homes of parents average a considerably greater mean trip length than students who commute from rented accommodation.</p> <p> The second analysis employs a disaggregate singly-constrained spatial interaction model to distribute trips between McMaster and student residential locations. The second analysis shows that: (i) the production-constrained model fits considerably better with observed data when the sample is partitioned into student renter and stay at home groups than when the sample is not partitioned. The attractiveness factors were varied between the two groups. Renters were considered to be attracted to renter occupied dwellings in a zone while students commuting from the homes of parents were considered to be attracted to the number of owner occupied dwellings in a zone. (ii) straight line distance as a surrogate for travel cost yields a better fit for the renter group while automobile travel-time facilitates a better fit for the stay at home group. Auto travel time yields a better fit for peripheral trips because of the tendency for these trips to be made by car. Given the understanding that student renters are predominantly bus users who have chosen to locate close to the campus, euclidean distance is apparently more reflective of the travel impedance experienced by this group. Future research should attempt to qualitatively link measures of travel cost with the client group they are attempting to model.</p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)