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Essentially, the history of Red Oak Academy is the history of private Internet K-12 instruction. Red Oak Academy began as a grant proposal which was awarded in the summer of 1995 through and by the Texas Rehabilitation Commission. Although some mail-order type correspondence schools were promoted on websites, NO other live online K-12 distance learning programs were available. All of the web-based applications needed to achieve the end purposes of K-12 schooling were in their infancy. The first live classes began transmitting across the Internet, in the fall of 1995 on DalNet.
The original name of this entity was American Public Schools Resource Institute and existed as a vendor for the Texas Rehabilitation Commission. Home Schooling on the Internet was originally perceived by ROA founders in 1991 as a result of work with special needs students in Texas Public Schools. The vast potential for Internet technology was beginning to emerge as a prospect to provide alternative education situations for students who were unable to attend public school due to disabilities. At that time, public school "homebound" education systems existed primarily as itinerate teacher situations and were not very effective in delivering new instruction to students on a daily basis.
The new paradigm perceived two-way communications between teachers at the public school campus and disabled students at home using the internet as an inexpensive means of establishing student-teacher contact. Throughout the 1995-1996 school year, approximately 12 students in grades 5 through 10 became enrolled in the American Public Schools Resource Institute. Since then, over 8000 students have processed through ROA’s various distance learning programs.
In 1997, the American Public Schools Resource Institute became a private for-profit entity. Between 1997 and 2002, annual enrollment averages 300-400 students who paid an average of $200 per month for the service. Staff consisted of one administrator, one part time accounting, 12 part time teachers, 1 grader and 1 shipping and receiving clerk. On-line course offerings and a fulltime Internet class schedule was available for students in grade 4-12. Parental support from an early childhood specialist was provided for grades K-3.
From 1995 through 2006, student enrollment has topped 8300 K-12 students with nearly 300 students being successfully placed in the college or university of their choice. These institutions of higher education include the University of California campuses at Davis, LA and Berkeley, University of Texas, Sarah Lawrence, Penn State, Valdosta State, University of Alabama, Florida State University, USC, Yale, Western Connecticut State University, Case Western Reserve University, Georgia Technical, Southern Virginia University, Navarro College, and Community Colleges in 14 Cities.
Today, Red Oak Academy is associated with the Lexington Group, International, a consortium of Engineering and Technology-based corporations dedicated to implementation of the latest technology in Education. High quality video streamed classes are now multicast 5 days a week and are available to thousands of simultaneous users across the Internet. ROA's most recent achievement has been to make college level courses available for high school juniors and seniors by the same K-12 distance learning methods they pioneered in the mid 1990s. ROA students can now school-at-home to obtain certified credits that apply toward high school AND college graduation - simultaneously.
To enroll your student go to:
http://www.redoakacademylive.net
or contact: