Organizational size, complexity, and student characteristics as determinants of administrative ratios in U. S. public high schools : A path analytic approach

Utilizing data from a sample of 218 U.S. public high schools collected for the U.S. Office of Education, path models were constructed to examine the relationship between organizational size, complexity, and administrative ratios in direct maintenance organizations. These relationships were found to be quite different in schools located in Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area large cities and those located in the surrounding suburbs. In large city schools, the administrative ratio increased primarily as a response to increased size of student populations. In suburban schools, the administrative ratio was primarily a product of increased size of the total school staff. Variables relating to characteristics of student populations; per cent Black, per cent poor, and per cent student turnover within an academic year did increase the explanatory power of the various models. However, these variables had no effect on the basic structural relationships between size, complexity, and the administrative ratio as might be expected where organizational throughput consists of active subjects rather than passive objects.Sociology, Department o