Correspondence Schools in Alaska: Enrollment and Cohort Graduation Rates, 2010-17

ABSTRACT

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, enrollment by race/ethnicity, grade distributions, and cohort graduation rates for the years 2010–17. Findings include a steady increase in the proportion of Alaskan students enrolled in correspondence schools between 2010 and 2017; disproportionate enrollment of Alaskan students identified as White in correspondence schools between 2010 and 2017; enrollment peaks in late high school during 2014–17; and significantly lower 4- and 5-year cohort graduation rates among students enrolled in correspondence schools compared to those enrolled in traditional public schools.

KEYWORDS:

• Correspondence schools
• Alaska
• homeschooling
• graduation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. “Rural,” or “Bush” Alaska generally refers to places off the road system. What counts as “rural” in Alaska is often quite a bit more remote and sparsely populated than elsewhere in America, where any place with fewer than 2,500 residents is so classified (U.S. Census Bureau, 2016). While a majority of students in Alaska live in urban areas (71% of school-aged children attend just five urban districts in Alaska [Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Kenai, and the Matanuska-Susitna valley]), a majority of schools are rural (Alaska Department of Education, 2016a).

2. The term “correspondence” originally referred to the earliest iteration of distance education in Alaska, which generally involved the purchase of (mailed) curriculum for use at home by a student, often with instructional support provided by a parent, relative, or hired tutor. Although not representative of the full range of homeschooling options in Alaska today, “correspondence” remains the statutory term for district and statewide distance-delivery education programs across Alaska (Alaska Department of Education, 2017).

3. Five states (Iowa, Minnesota, Arizona, Illinois, and Louisiana) have constructed tax credits that can provide indirect support to homeschooling families deducting expenses when filing state taxes; the allowable deductions vary from $250-$5,000 annually (HSLDA, 2013).

4. A note on these data – the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development has only released data for separate cohorts of students entering 9th grade in different years (2010–11, 2011–12 & 2012–13 for 5-year cohorts; 2011–12, 2012–13, and 2013–14 for 4-year cohorts), rather than longitudinal data that could be used to track the same students over time. Hence, while 4- and 5-year cohort graduation rates are reported here, readers should understand that they represent different groups of students, rather than a longitudinal portrait of a single group (Alaska Department of Education & Early Development, 2015).

5. Following the 4-year Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate [ACGR] reporting requirement for all states under 34 C.F.R. §200.19(b) (1) (i)–(iv) (U.S. Department of Education, 2008).

6. The “Big Five” terminology is informally used throughout the state, and includes the Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Kenai, and Matanuska-Susitna [suburban Anchorage] school districts.