Date of Award
1-23-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Educational Leadership, Ed.D.
First Advisor
Bronwyn MacFarlane
Committee Members
Daniele Jordan; Michael Wesolek
Abstract
This quantitative study investigated how Alternative Education Campuses (AECs) are associated with high school graduation rates in Texas. Two research questions guided the study: (a) whether districts' five-year extended graduation rates differ five years before versus five years after establishing an AEC, and (b) whether four-year graduation rates differ between districts that offer AECs and those that do not. District-level, TEA-reported graduation rates were analyzed for five AEC-adopting districts for Research Question 1 and for eleven districts (five with AECs, six without) for Research Question 2. Analyses included paired-samples and independent-samples t tests, with multiple linear regression to corroborate group differences. Results indicated no statistically significant difference in five-year extended graduation rates before versus after AEC establishment (two-tailed p = .085), although the post-AEC mean was higher (M = 0.9055 vs. 0.8623) and the practical magnitude was large (Cohen's d = 0.96). In contrast, districts without AECs exhibited significantly higher four-year graduation rates than AEC districts (two-tailed p =.046), a pattern corroborated by regression estimates (β = −0.0578, p = .0425). Taken together, the findings suggest that on-time completion (four-year) patterns favor non-AEC districts in this sample, whereas extended completion (five-year) shows a positive, though not statistically significant, post-AEC trend. Implications for policy and leadership include sustaining robust on-time graduation systems in comprehensive high schools while ensuring credible fifth-year pathways and accurate cohort tracking for students primarily served in alternative settings.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Gossett, Joshua Paul, "The Impact of Alternative Education Campuses of Choice on a District’s Graduation Rate" (2026). Student Theses and Dissertations. 1151.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/1151
