Distance learning

Question:
What percentage of elementary and secondary schools offer distance education?

Response:
In 2009�, some 53 percent of public school districts had high school students enrolled in distance education courses. Distance education courses are defined as courses that are credit-granting, technology-delivered, have either the instructor in a different location than the students and/or have the course content developed in, or delivered from, a different location than that of the students. By comparison, in 2002�, approximately 30 percent of public school districts had high school students enrolled in distance education courses.

In 2009�, there was some variation by locale in the percentage of public school districts with students enrolled in distance education courses. Sixty-six percent of public school districts in towns had high school students in distance education courses, which was higher than the percentage for rural (56 percent), suburban (45 percent), or city districts (37 percent).

There were over 1.3 million high school student enrollments in distance education courses in 2009�, an increase of over 1 million enrollments from 2004�, when there were just over 300,000 enrollments. By comparison, between 2002� and 2004�, there was an increase of less than 100,000 in the number of high school student enrollments in distance education courses (from 222,000 to 310,000).

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2012). The Condition of Education (NCES 2012-045), Indicator 15.

Related Tables and Figures:  (Listed by Release Date)

• 2012, Digest of Education Statistics 2011, Table 110. Percentage of public school districts with students enrolled in technology-based distance education courses and number of enrollments in such courses, by instructional level and district characteristics: 2002-03, 2004�, and 2009-10
  

Other Resources:  (Listed by Release Date)

• 2010, Educational Technology in U.S. Public Schools: Fall 2008
  
• 2009, Educational Technology in Public School Districts: Fall 2008
  
• 2008, Technology-Based Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary School Students: 2002� and 2004�