Survey responses from 76 public school districts in Mississippi and Alabama, tornado warning data, tornado path data, and county demographic data were used to investigate early dismissals in public schools. There was little agreement among survey responses and this inconsistency supports the idea that each situation is unique and one plan may not be successful for all districts. The highest number of reported dismissals would have resulted in a loss of less than 2% of the total annual class time. A higher number of recent killer tornadoes, a lower level of poverty, and a team rather than individual decision were the three most important variables in determining which districts would dismiss more often. The seven districts that reported not dismissing were all well below the national poverty average. Other important factors included smaller county area, higher number of killer tornadoes since 1950, and serving a county rather than city population.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MSSTATE/oai:scholarsjunction.msstate.edu:td-4862 |
| Date | 11 May 2013 |
| Creators | Van Meter, Jessica |
| Publisher | Scholars Junction |
| Source Sets | Mississippi State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
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