Date Awarded

1988

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Education

Advisor

James M. Yankovich

Abstract

The economies of scale concept holds that as an enterprise increases its output, the cost per unit of output decreases. The concept also holds that as the production output increases further a point is reached at which the cost per unit of output increases, marking the start of diseconomies of scale. Furthermore, the concept holds whether the enterprise is a manufacturing or education institution.;Community college financial, enrollment, and award data for the ten years between 1976 through 1985 were obtained from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). Appropriate data selection produced a sample of 758 state, local, or state-local community colleges in existence for each of the 10 years between 1976 and 1985. This was nearly 80 per cent of the public community college total.;A parabolic relationship between cost per student and enrollment was hypothesized. The hypothesis was tested by using regression analysis with forced entry of the independent variable(s).;The hypothesis was not supported. Emerging from 20 models with various terms expressing direct and inverse relationships between dependent and independent variable(s), Y = (a) (X**-b) (EXP**(cX)) was the best fit. This decaying exponential model possessed the highest multiple R of any of the 20 equations tried. Furthermore, the decaying exponential, after being transformed to the natural logarithm form, met regression analysis' assumptions for the underlying data (normality, linearity, and equal variance) better than any of the 20 equations modelled.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25774/w4-8tvh-mt70

Rights

© The Author

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