With shrinking budgets and increasing expectations on college readiness, Wareham High School is using online courses to prepare students for the SAT and provide for a wider range of study.

Wareham Public Schools Director of Curriculum and Instruction Janice Rotella said the Edgenuity online courses have been offered at the high school, Co-op school and West Wareham Academy as electives for three years but this is the first year the Edgenuity SAT prep course is a requirement for all high school juniors. Every student is required to take a quarter year of math and a quarter of English with classes taught by certified math and English teachers supplemented by the Edgenuity online course.

Rotella said the classes offer a blended learning style where students do work online but also receive instruction from a teacher in the classroom. She said the district has experimented with different online course services for years, but this program offers the most customization for individual students and comes at no cost to the district as the entire program for the last three years has been funded by Race to the Top federal grants.

"They respond better with actual interaction, just looking at a computer screen--they don't like the program, they get bored," said Carolyn Gomes-Vieira, who teaches one of the English sessions.

Vieira said there's a chance the SAT will be completely computer-based in the future, and that computer-based learning is better for students than just drilling them with endless multiple choice questions and vocbaulary memorization.

"They have to be engaged with it," she said.

The program allows Vieira to view individual student progress reports, where students are doing well, and where they are struggling.

"I can see everything," she said, saying that she only needed a 10 minute crash course from the school librarian to learn the details.  "If you're familiar with technology it's not a difficult program to learn."

High School Principal Scott Palladino said he's gotten positive feedback from students who previously took the SAT prep courses as electives, but feels the school will see the real fruits of their labor once a full year of students have gone through the program.

In addition to the SAT prep courses, Palladino said there are about 40 students who are taking advantage of the online electives, which are offered in a number of different courses.

On Thursday afternoon, Wareham senior Nicole Nault was taking an online class in the library during her open period.

"Entrepreneurship didn't fit into my schedule but I wanted to take it," she said.

The entrepreneurship class is only offered once during the day, and Nault couldn't fit it in between her three AP courses and other classes.

"I can do the work at home as well," said Nault, who will be heading to UMass Dartmouth in the fall.

Palladino said the Edgenuity courses are great for students who join during the school year and need to catch up.

High School Librarian Judy DeBonise said a junior just recently joined Wareham from a vocational school and is taking a year's worth of foreign language with the help of online classes between now and the end of the summer to stay on track for her graduation requirements.

The courses have only been offered at the High School, Co-op School and West Wareham Academy for the past three years and Rotella said she wasn't sure if there were any plans for expansion.

But she did mention an instance last year where the middle school was unable to find a French teacher but 60 students were able to take the Edgenuity French class with the help of an online tutor. All of the foreign language Edgenuity courses are developed through Middlebury College in Vermont, which is internationally renowned for its foreign language program.

"It was the highest percentage of students we've sent to the high school in recent years," Rotella said of the online French program. "It's worked for the students."