The State of Alaska, by some measures the United States' most rural state, has long supported correspondence schools, a popular school choice option available to all students statewide and used primarily by homeschooled students. This paper first explores Alaska correspondence schools in historical context, and then quantifies capture rate,…

The purpose of this study was to examine correspondence schools of music in the early twentieth century. Advertisements in widely circulated household and music periodicals and archival copies of courses from Siegel-Myers Correspondence School of Music, United States School of Music, American College of Music, and others were examined. Research…

Background: Correspondence schools abounded in early 20th-century America. Several hundred for-profit vendors drew the vast majority of the annual enrollments, which peaked at one half million in the mid-1920s. Dozens of well-known universities created home study departments to expand their "extension" work. The handful of good studies…

In this paper, I examine the provenance of distance education or "teledidactics" in Australia. I take as my case studies the New South Wales Correspondence School and the School of the Air and suggest that their emergence was underpinned by a desire on the part of educational and broadcasting bureaucrats to increase the equity of school…

The Preliminary Unit Pack (PUP) experiment was an attempt to identify non-starters in correspondence education early in the program stages. An initial pack of resources sent to enrollees was reduced in size and a response to this material required prior to formal enrollment. A reduction of the non-starter rate was achieved in the experimental…

A study program and test collection project was recently completed by the Clearinghouse for Applied Performance Testing at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL). The project focused on two separate, but related, objectives: compilation of self-study programs leading directly to certification or licensing and development of a survey…

The accounting of the origin, development, and use of private home study schools in Illinois analyzes their enrollment, courses, regulations, economics, subject matter areas, and strengths and weaknesses. The potential they offer for future coordination with public schools is stressed and recommendations are directed to the governer, the State…

This report is addressed to administrators in the field of correspondence education. In dealing with attrition, it suggests that it is possible to control the proportion of those who do not start after enrollment; it may be possible to reclaim those who fail an examination; and the proportion of those who drop out may be reduced. Beginning with a…

Prepared to meet the need for published factual data, this report on correspondence schools in Western Australia is designed to aid the education department in the upgrading and planning of correspondence education for the rurally isolated. Following the pattern of a 1974 questionnaire which sought information from parents (67 percent response) of…

Reviews distance education in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and discusses its impact on the country. Programs highlighted include the College of External Studies, the correspondence school of the National Department of Education; the University of Papua New Guinea; programs offered by corporations and government departments; and courses from outside PNG.…

The analysis of correspondence training by service personnel and veterans was based upon and prepared from the file of veterans and service personnel who trained in correspondence schools under chapter 34 (GI bill) during June 1966 through December 1974. The overall results showed that (1) during this period, a total of 5.3 million persons had…

A study examined the course structure and educational practices used by National Home Study Council (NHSC) member institutions. To gather data for the study, researchers mailed questionnaires to 60 members of the NHSC. Based on data from the 51 usable responses, the researchers determined that the average age of students enrolled in programs…

This paper examines the frequency and purpose of interactions between rural students and teachers at the Brisbane School of Distance Education. Research regarding distance education indicated that: (1) both the school community and rural community significantly influence teacher-student interactions; (2) the student population represents diverse…

Resulting from a 1980 workshop and a survey of 12 selected distance learning systems (or correspondence study programs), this paper had four aims: (1) to provide a framework to describe distance learning systems using audiovisual media and to locate the 12 surveyed institutions within that framework, (2) to identify common problem areas in the…

Distance education has developed into a variety of correspondence courses, covering a wide range of subject matter. Distance education systems operate on all continents, at levels from primary to university and through the nonformal and vocational. The variation selected must meet a given need and be appropriate to available resources. Many…