Eradication of Senior Slump Remains Elusive

Some places using innovative tactics

Call it the senior slump.

Often, with their most difficult classes and tests behind them, seniors want to cruise to the finish line of spring graduation rather than push to the end, which can make it challenging to keep them engaged.

"Students get burnt out in high school. That last year can be a struggle," said Robie Cornelious, the director of high school acceleration programs in the Duval County district in Jacksonville, Fla. "Our counselors are in tune with helping students make the best choices, rather than take the easiest route."

To motivate students to aim high, the 125,000-student system has expanded Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, Early College High School, and Cambridge International Exam programs in all its high schools. Nearly half of seniors participate in one of those accelerated offerings. Students are embracing the rigor, according to Ms. Cornelious, and the programs are promoting a college-going culture that is helping increase the district's graduation rate.

That is just the kind of push some experts say is needed to energize students in the senior year, which has just come to a close for the class of 2012—and the kind of initiative educators promoted a decade ago. But little came of that big talk about revamping the senior year.

"The senior year is something that ebbs and flows. There is a lot of discussion and hand-wringing," said Stanford University's Michael W. Kirst, a professor emeritus in the school of education. "But it is not a reform that has taken hold in a broad way."

A number of reasons explain why.

The issue never had a clear constituency, said Mr. Kirst, who is also the president of the California board of education. Employers and even many colleges don't look closely at senior-year grades, and when the No Child Left Behind Act came along a decade ago, it virtually ignored testing after the 10th grade, he said.

"The senior year was bypassed by the standards movement, and that really hurt it a lot," said Mr. Kirst, who wrote a report in 2000 that recommended schools reclaim the senior year as a time for serious academic engagement and work more closely with colleges to promote a clear pathway beyond high school.

There's also the timing of the college-admission process. Applications are in before the end of a senior's first semester, and a growing number of applicants are accepted early, giving many the feeling of a free pass until graduation.

Some states nevertheless have passed laws in support of a more rigorous senior year. In some places, districts are encouraged to offer college-level courses in high school or on nearby community college campuses. Other alternatives include requiring senior research projects, promoting internships, and offering independent study.

It's not the students who plan to go to selective colleges or pursue careers that are at risk in a lax senior year, Mr. Kirst maintained. The most vulnerable are the vast majority who go to postsecondary programs with open-access policies.

"They know they can get into community colleges," he said. "Students don't get the clear message that there are placement exams or that they will need remediation." If students skip math and science in senior year, they often don't remember the basics and start out at a disadvantage.

Two promising policies on the horizon may address the senior slump, according to Mr. Kirst. Tests are under development that are expected to align with the Common Core State Standards and gauge college and career readiness in 11th grade. That should reveal to seniors that their final year is their last and only chance to get ready for college, perhaps motivating them to study more, he said.

Also, early-assessment programs in California and elsewhere, in which students voluntarily take exams in high school to see if they are college-ready, can be a signal for students to buckle down.

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