Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Richard Hammett

Abstract

AbstractA state-wide Individual Student Alternative Education Plan (ISAEP) seeks to assist high school (HS) students at risk of not graduating in completing HS credentials. The problem was that there was no formal state-wide process for monitoring the program to understand its impact. The purpose of this quantitative exploratory study was to determine whether the graduation variables that were published by the state could be used to predict ISAEP GED attainment. The Theory of Action proposed by McPartland and Jordan guided two main research questions to see if ISAEP GED attainment could be predicted by categories of HS completion, and if ISAEP GED attainment could be predicted by students’ post-HS plans. An archived convenience sample of ISAEP (N =131) and non-ISAEP (N = 171) schools was downloaded from a public-access database provided by the state. A weighted least squares regression (WLSR) revealed that two of the six graduation categories; Standard Diplomas and Advanced Studies Diplomas, significantly predicted ISAEP GED attainment, F(2, 86) = 10.934, p < .001, with Advanced Studies being negatively related. A second WLSR was significant with two of the six post-high school plan variables. Other Continuing Education and Military Service predicted ISAEP GED, F(3, 85) = 7.614, p < .001 better than the mean model alone. Because other variables are collected at the school level and not made available in the public database, it was recommended that a data committee be formed to study alternative variables that could be published by the state to improve the fidelity of future studies and the ability to continue adding to the understanding of how the ISAEP is related to student achievement. Positive social change is achieved when alternative education programs result in greater student success.

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