Publication Date

1976

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Walker, Albert, 1920-

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Journalism

LCSH

Schools--Public relations

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine and correlate data regarding certification and management status of school public relations personnel from within the membership of the National School Public Relations Association. A questionnaire was distributed to 300 members of the National School Public Relations Association (hereafter referred to as NSPRA) at the NSPRA Annual Seminar in Philadelphia, July of 1976. A total of 110 questionnaires were returned via mail or personally at the location site. The questionnaire was divided into two parts. The first part asked respondents for general characteristics in the following areas: full time/part time employment, certification status, rank of supervisor, age, education, degree major, school district size, salary, previous work experience and current public relations title. The second half of the questionnaire attempted to determine the nature of the respondents' management status in the following areas: membership within the Superintendent's Cabinet, Administrative Council, Curriculum Advisory Council and Board of Education, and decision-making participation within the same four above groups. In summary, the following conclusions may be drawn: 1. There were significant differences in the salaries between certified and non-certified respondents. 2. Certification is not a measurement tool for membership in the Superintendent's Cabinet. 3. Certification is not a measurement tool for membership in the Administrative Council. 4. Certification is not a measurement tool for membership in the Curriculum Advisory Council. 5. There is no relationship between certification status and specified job titles for school public relations personnel. 6. There is no relationship between certification status and allotment of staff within the school public relations department. Statistics gathered from the respondents' answers showed that 55.2 percent held a teacher, administrative and/or supervisory certificate and of those remaining, 44.8 percent were not certified in any specialized category. A further breakdown of current salary ranges showed that 25.9 percent received less than $15,000; more than 38.9 percent received a medium range of $15,000 to $20,000 and in the highest bracket, 35.2 percent received more than $20,000 on an annual basis. The percentage of school public relations personnel functioning as members of the Superintendent's Cabinet totaled 59.2 percent of both certified and non-certified NSPRA respondents in contrast to 40.8 percent who are not members. A higher percentage of NSPRA members functioned as part of the Administrative Council (64.4 percent) and more than 80 percent of NSPRA respondents' were assisted in their public relations tasks by other personnel within their department. Of the allotment of staff within their public relations department, secretarial help was designated by 76.4 percent of the respondents.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.||Pagination skips number 3.

Extent

ix, 105 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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