RACINE - Candace Isetts-Williams' 11-year-old daughter was struggling in literature class and forgot her textbook at school.

She had a quiz the next day and things looked bleak.

But Isetts-Williams had her daughter go online to http://www.classzone.com and it made all the difference.

"We had tears and everything the night before the quiz and we logged online and played the games and she got a 100 percent on the quiz," she said.

Sites like ClassZone are available for free on Racine Unified's Web site, but Isetts-Williams and district officials said not enough parents fully utilize the online

resources.

"Learning does not end when the school bell rings. It should continue at home," Isetts-Williams said, adding that she would definitely recommend the sites to other parents. "I see it has improved my children's abilities in school and increased their comprehension."

The 43-year-old mom of four from Mount Pleasant primarily uses Web sites that accompany her children's textbooks series. The sites generally offer an electronic version of the book along with supplemental materials like school workbooks.

"If they say, 'I forgot my spelling book. I can't do my homework,' whoops - it's here," said Sue Gorman, a technology coordinator for Unified.

The sites also offer features like games, movie clips, book report makers and more.

One site that is new to Unified's collection, http://www.brainpop.com, "covers every area of the curriculum" with games, movies you can pause and come back to, quizzes and writing assignments that align with Wisconsin's state testing standards, Gorman said.

Students can even draw pictures online that correspond to their lessons.

"Now we're giving them another way to learn," Gorman said. "We're meeting all the levels of learning."

The district has compiled a listing of these resources by grade level and subject area as well as a list of online databases all of which are available at http://instech.racine.k12.wi.us.

"It's another resource for getting information to your child," Isetts-Williams said. "It lines up with what they're learning in school. Just Googling, you don't know if that's how your children are learning it in school."

AnnMarie Grabher, 34, of Racine, has found success for her children online as well.

The online reading programs have helped at least one of her children stop struggling with

vocabulary words.

"They make it easy," Grabher said.

How To Access:

To access online learning resources, visit: http://instech.racine.k12.wi.us From there, choose the resources button and select the drop-down tab labeled: Online Databases Available to All Schools. The page will load a list of links to online resources complete with descriptions of the Web sites. Click on the desired link.

Parents can also choose the classroom button at http://instech.racine.k12.wi.us and select the drop down menu that corresponds to their child's grade or textbook.

Some of the sites require passwords and user names that can be obtained by calling your child's school.