Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
7-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Andrew Lumpe
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Christie Bledsoe
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Amy Barrios
Abstract
This quantitative cross-sectional comparable study examined the differences in academic performance and attendance in Texas public high school campuses between those operating on a 4-day instructional week and those operating on a 5-day instructional week. The study used a quantitative, cross-sectional comparable design. The analysis included campus-level data from the Texas Education Agency’s Texas Academic Performance Reports. The independent variable was instructional schedule—either a 4-day or a 5-day instructional week. The dependent variables included campus attendance rates and student performance on the English I and Algebra I End-of-Course (EOC) STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) assessments of ninth-grade students in the target high schools. The study matched campuses based on enrollment size, demographic characteristics, and socioeconomic status to improve comparability between groups. The analysis used multiple regression to examine the relationship between instructional schedule and student outcomes while controlling for economic disadvantage, student mobility, enrollment size, emergent bilingual status, and special education participation. No statistically significant differences in EOC STAAR Exam English I performance, EOC STAAR Exam Algebra I performance, or attendance rates between campuses operating on 4-day and 5-day instructional weeks were found. However, economic disadvantage,student mobility, and enrollment size were significant predictors of all three student outcomes. It was shown that the instructional school week schedule alone was a significant predictor of academic performance or attendance outcomes for students. The results support a focus on demographic and school conditions when evaluating student outcomes in Texas public high schools. Disclosure: The results of this study do not reflect the views of the Texas Education Agency.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Miles, Cynthia, "Attendance and Academic Performance: A Comparison of 4-Day and 5-Day School Week Schedules in Texas High Schools" (2026). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1042.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/1042
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Education Economics Commons, Secondary Education Commons