DROPOUT RATE DIFFERENCES IN TEXAS ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION CAMPUSES OF CHOICE: A STATEWIDE ANALYSIS

The purposes of this journal-ready dissertation were to provide a descriptive analysis of the demographic characteristics of students and teachers in Texas Alternative Education Campuses of Choice, recognized as Dropout Recovery Schools, during two 5-year school spans (i.e., 2005-2006 through 2009-2010 and 2014-2015 through 2018-2019) and to provide statistical analyses of archived data between the 2016-2017 and 2018-2019 school years on the campus dropout rates of students enrolled in these schools, as well as, by student ethnicity/race and student economic status. For the first research study, a descriptive research design, involving the analysis of multiple years of data, was present (Johnson & Christensen, 2020). For the second and third research studies, inferential statistical analyses on archival data for campus dropout rates, ethnicity/race, and economic status of students enrolled in these schools for the 2016-2017 school year and the 2018-2019 school year were conducted. Established in this journal-ready dissertation were clear inequities by student and teacher ethnicity/race, student economic status, and teacher gender in all school years. By the 2018-2019 school year, 50% of student enrollment were Hispanic followed by White, Black, and Asian. Also, Asian student enrollment had decreased to 0.65%. Black student enrollment increased to 11.66%. Hispanic student enrollment increased to 52.84%. Lastly, White student enrollment decreased to 32.23%. Additionally, two-thirds of students enrolled were students in poverty, which was an increase in enrollment of students in poverty of 23.71% throughout the 14-year span. Nearly 60% of teachers employed at Alternative Education Campuses of Choice were White, followed by Hispanic teachers at 20%, Black teachers at 5%, and Asian teachers at 2%. Furthermore, 60% of teachers were female. Dropout rates by student ethnicity/race and economic status of students enrolled in the 2016-2017 and 2018-2019 school years were also addressed. Hispanic students had the highest decline in dropout rate at 2.04%, then Black students at 1.73%, and then White students at 1.26%. During the same years, the dropout rate of Alternative Education Campuses of Choice declined by 1.14%. The dropout rate of students in poverty declined by less than 1%, from 8.97% to 8.51%.