photo by Stefan Rogenmoser

Samantha Wyatt works afternoons at Bearly Worn Boutique when she finishes her online high school classes.

Samantha Wyatt, 16, hasn’t been in a classroom for two years but will graduate high school in December at age 17. She takes high school courses online through Palmetto State E-cademy (PSE), a public, tuition-free charter high school available to South Carolina residents.

“It’s like an online textbook,” Wyatt said. “You read through lesson plans, syllabus, due dates.”

“It’s made my life a whole lot easier,” Wyatt said, adding that she has more free time to practice guitar and work on graphic design.

“Flexibility makes it popular,” PSE Executive Director Barbara Stoops said. “Students can study at their own time. most teenagers do a little better in the middle of the day.”

Stoops said there are 600 students in the program, which opened in the fall of 2008. “Our tests require critical thinking,” Stoops said.

There are online quizzes and writing assignments which are graded by a teacher. “The cool part about online schooling is it’s open page,” Wyatt said.

Wyatt logs in to meet with a “virtual classroom” weekly and listens to a lecture. The instructor goes through the lesson plan for the upcoming week to make sure everyone understands it, Wyatt said.

Paying attention to the lecture is 20 percent of the grade. “You can watch a recording if you miss it.”

She’s allowed to take up to six classes at one time, which she does. Each class has its own instructor. The web lecture lasts 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the teacher, according to Wyatt.

“Some ask for group participation, some ask us to click a green checkmark,” Wyatt said.

There are 22 highly-qualified teachers certified by the state who teach only the subjects they are certified to teach, Stoops said.

Wyatt gets up at 7 a.m., does school work from 7:30 until 11, noon or 1 p.m. at the very latest, she said. Then she goes to work at Bearly Worn Boutique, a children’s store.

Wyatt focuses on one subject a day so she can complete a week’s worth of schoolwork in a single day, working at her own pace, she said. “I try to stay two to three weeks ahead.”

The schedule follows a traditional school year calendar, but Wyatt is taking additional classes this summer. May 25 was the last official day of her regular classes.

She recently read John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice And Men” and Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men.”

Wyatt said the main focus of online school is to learn, not the socialization that most students make of school.

“I can talk on the phone and be in class at the same time. You can’t get behind though.”

Wyatt was home schooled in ninth grade, took 10th and 11th grade classes online and will continue to do so until she finishes senior classes. She skipped eighth grade by taking a test that showed she already knew the curriculum.

Upon graduating, she plans to travel to Washington state, Texas and Iowa to visit friends. She has friends from online school in Columbia, Conway and Orangeburg, she said. “I’ve met quite a lot of them in person.”

By next summer she’ll attend Trident Technical College or Clinton Community College in Clinton, Iowa, where her older sister lives. Clinton’s population is about 400, Wyatt said.

She’d attended Grace Christian Academy in Ladson and Beech Hill Elementary, Newington Elementary and DuBose Middle in Dorchester District 2.

Stoops said PSE individualizes to meet students’ needs so they’ll successfully complete high school. There are different routes students can take, she said. Some graduate in three years with college credits, some graduate in four years and others in five years.

For more information visit www.psecademy.org.

Journalscene.com ® is pleased to offer readers the enhanced ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. Journalscene.com ® does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not Journalscene.com ®. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "report abuse" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website.

Users can now build user-to-user connections, follow friends' recent posts, add an avatar that fits their personality, and more. If you have posted here before you'll need to sign up again, or if you've never posted before, start now by reading our terms and conditions, and then signing up below!

• Santee Cooper announces 2012 refunding bond sale
• Santee Cooper announces organizational changes in operation and finance departments
• Santee Cooper employees pitch in on Day of Caring
• Aerial herbicide treatment on lakes under way
• Santee Cooper Board Authorizes Rate Study
• Santee Cooper announces refunding bond sale
• Santee Cooper, Florida Municipal Power Agency enter into letter of intent for share of planned V.C. Summer Station units
• Santee Cooper, Duke Energy Carolinas enter into letter of intent for share of planned V.C. Summer Station units 2 and 3