Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Dixon, P. Grady

Committee Member

Sherman-Morris, Kathleen

Committee Member

Brown, Michael E.

Date of Degree

5-11-2013

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Geosciences

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Geosciences

Abstract

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.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17758

Comments

tornadoes||schools

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