The Arthur Project, a Public Relations Study in School and Community Relations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the change in understandings and attitudes of parents relative to the common school problems which affect a community.Specifically, this study dealt with a selected community in west central Nebraska, namely Arthur, Nebraska.Since this community embraces an entire county, many of the findings of this study may be applicable to a large number of areas similar to Arthur which have a low density of population but include a large geographic area. This investigation utilized data from the following sources: (1) A comprehensive survey of the educational needs of Arthur County, Nebraska, and (2) a survey of literature.These two were felt to be necessary in order to gain information concerning the educational needs, methods and procedures, whereby large groups could be actively involved in participation in each meeting. Four public meetings were planned dealing with significant school problems or issues.The specific topics and the sub-points under each were: What kind of an education do we want for our children? How can we as parents and teachers insure home and school cooperation? Are we developing good citizens? What are the critical issues of education in Arthur County? A questionnaire, in the form of a belief test, was handed out to each person present at the first meeting and this test was scored at that time.This questionnaire contained points on each topic and each question was scored on a five point scale.Each person was asked to use a code number and to remember this number since the questionnaire was to be handed out to be scored by the people at the last meeting.The results were then tabulated and an attempt was made to ascertain how much the attitudes and the understandings could be changed by taking part in a series of four educational meetings.Due to the fact that the number of persons attending each meeting varied and the audience did not include a constant nucleus of participants, conclusions based upon the changes of understandings displayed by the questionnaire may not be decisive. Advisor:Unknow