correspondence school

American  

noun

1. a school operating on a system in which study materials and tests are mailed to the students, who in turn mail their work back to the school for grading.

---

correspondence school British  

noun

1. an educational institution that offers tuition ( correspondence courses ) by post

---

Etymology

Origin of correspondence school

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

Actual high school student Rogen got a head start while still on set: “I told them I was doing correspondence school from Canada and just wrote ‘Superbad’ all day.”

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 25, 2024

Zeman in April found that laws around correspondence school allotments “were drafted with the express purpose of allowing purchases of private educational services with the public correspondence student allotments.”

From Seattle Times • May 3, 2024

Deaf from birth, he was sent by his parents to a specialized school, where, in addition to learning Swedish sign language in class, he taught himself written English and German through a correspondence school.

From New York Times • Aug. 29, 2022

Instead, Emerson offered distance courses through the University of Nebraska High School, a onetime correspondence school.

From Washington Post • Oct. 29, 2021

I was concentrating on one of the maps the correspondence school had sent her for a course in map reading and mapmaking.

From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George