It offers a high school diploma program and several high school concentration programs, including an early college program.
History
19th century
In 1890, Thomas J. Foster, a newspaper editor, founded what was named the International Correspondence Schools to provide coal miners with the education they needed to advance in their careers and increase worker safety. According to a history of the school, its "success is owed to its understanding the market and its prospective students. Influenced by the popular Horatio Alger books, people were looking to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and climb the social and economic ladder."
Beginning in the 1890s, ICS received competition from state schools, including Penn State.
20th century
By the 1920s, public high school education had become more universal, providing more of the basic education that ICS had provided so many. The G.I. Bill paid for in-person educations, drawing away ICS customers. ICS shrank and was a small operation from the 1950s to the 1990s.[2] As the popularity of correspondence schools waned, ICS lost students.[3]
In 2007, the Wicks Group, a private equity firm, bought the school from Thomson Corporation. In 2009, Penn Foster was resold to test preparation and educational support company The Princeton Review. In 2012, the Princeton Review brand name and operations were bought for $33 million by Charlesbank Capital Partners, a private-equity firm. The parent company was renamed Education Holdings 1, Inc.[4] In 2013, Education Holdings 1 filed for bankruptcy; it exited two months later.[5][6] In 2014 Vistria Group, led by Martin Nesbitt, acquired Penn Foster.[7][8]
Penn Foster High School is an open enrollment institution. As an online school, students do not work directly with certified teachers. Rather, they complete classes in a correspondence school-like format. To obtain a high school diploma, students take a core curriculum of classes and five elective courses. Students may use these elective courses to focus on specific industries, such as healthcare, information technology, or building technology, or may take approved college level courses.[11] Students and graduates can access Penn Foster Career Services, which helps students find a job through resume and cover letter preparation, job search assistance, and interview tips. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Penn Foster High School has 11.5 FTE (full-time equivalent teachers) for about 13,000 students.[12]
Student outcomes
According to the company, about 30,000 people graduate each year.[13]
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