This file contains data from a fast-response survey conducted in winter-spring 2003-04 titled “Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary School Students: 2002-03.” This public school district survey was the first nationally representative study to examine technology-based distance education availability, course offerings, and enrollments in the nation's public elementary and secondary schools. For this study, distance education courses were defined as credit-granting courses offered to elementary and secondary school students enrolled in the district in which the teacher and students were in different locations. NCES released the results of the survey in the publication “Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary School Students: 2002-03.” Questionnaires and cover letters for the study were mailed to the superintendent of each sampled district in November 2003, requesting that the questionnaire be completed by the district's director of curriculum and instruction, the technology coordinator, the distance education coordinator, or another staff member who was most knowledgeable about the district's distance education courses. Respondents were also offered the option of completing the survey via the Web. Telephone follow-up for survey nonresponse and data clarification was initiated in December 2003 and completed in April 2004. The final response rate was 94 percent. The survey asked whether there were any public elementary or secondary school students in the district enrolled in distance education courses. If the respondents indicated that there were public elementary or secondary school students in the district enrolled in distance education courses, they were asked to report the number of schools in their district with students enrolled in distance education courses by instructional level of the school. Respondents were also asked to report the number of distance education course enrollments in schools in their district by instructional level of the school and curriculum area. Other survey items asked which technologies were used as primary modes of instructional delivery for distance education courses, which entities delivered distance education courses, whether any students accessed online distance education courses (and if so, from which locations), and the district's reasons for having distance education courses. Finally, respondents were asked whether their district had any plans to expand their distance education courses, and if so, which factors, if any, might be keeping them from expanding those courses.
Online Availability
