High schools tackle 'senioritis'

AMHERST, N.H. -- Ryan Sweeney, a senior here at Souhegan High School, didn't have much time for ''senioritis" to set in before graduation.

For his senior project -- a nearly yearlong assignment and graduation requirement -- Sweeney decided to focus on music. Sweeney, who graduated June 17, learned how to compose musical scores, and wrote four songs for his jazz-style band, the Notes.

''It gave me a chance to do something I always wanted to do," Sweeney said. ''There's no reason to slack on this. Kids get to choose what they want to pursue."

Souhegan High School is among a small but growing number of high schools nationwide trying to make the senior year more relevant and worthwhile. At Souhegan, students pick a topic, research it, then use what they learn in a practical way. The school and others are responding, in part, to long-held concerns of educators and parents that seniors spend the final months of the year marking time.

Schools are adding senior projects, courses at community colleges, and more internships to help students figure out what they want to do in college and with their lives, while making the structure of the senior year stand apart from the previous three years of high school. Some smaller states are also tinkering with the senior year. Starting in 2008, Rhode Island will require all high school seniors to prove that they have met state standards in six subjects through a senior project or portfolio of their work.

''It should be a time in their life to think about what kind of adults they want to be, and what kind of work they would like to do," said Nancy Sizer, a former high school teacher for 25 years and author of ''Crossing the Stage: Redesigning Senior Year." ''They do have energy for thinking through their lives and planning."

But in most cases, she said, students she interviewed for her book said senior year was too much like other years, leading inevitably to senioritis -- that annual malaise that turns many 12th-graders into slackers. What seniors really want, she said, is to be challenged.

A survey of 1,200 high school seniors this year by the National Governors Association supports Sizer's research. The survey found that 59 percent of seniors polled indicated they would work harder during senior year if their school offered more demanding and interesting courses, and 49 percent indicated they wanted their senior year to be significantly more meaningful, criticizing their high schools for lacking the practical programs and skills that could help them be better prepared for college.

The findings surprised the National Governors Association. Students blaming the schools for their boredom flipped the whole notion of senioritis on its head. School administrators and teachers have long pinned responsibility on the students.

''We thought students would want to coast through their senior year," said Dane Linn, director of the association's education division.

When Souhegan High School opened 13 years ago, school administrators introduced the senior project as a way to curb senioritis but also as an opportunity for students to show what they learned during their four years of high school that could not be measured by a standardized test -- the ability to take a kernel of an idea, transform it into a full-fledged demonstration presented before a committee, and discover something about themselves in the process.

''Senior project is a rite of passage, a powerful rite of passage for every member of the senior class," said Ted Hall, Souhegan's principal. ''Kids groan about it in the middle of it, but there's great energy in this school."

The senior project has become engrained in the school's culture. Every administrator and teacher in grades 9-12 mentors a few seniors through the project. Students present an idea to a committee in the fall, then begin research. They must find an outside specialist, who also will serve as a mentor, and the project needs to include a hands-on learning component. In the spring, they deliver their findings to a committee.

James Gates, 18, turned his summer job of mowing lawns into a full-blown landscaping business for his senior project.

He registered the business with the corporation division of the New Hampshire Secretary of State's office, leased a new pickup truck, and took out an insurance policy. His business, he said, is twice the size it was last summer, and he made enough money to pay for his first year at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, where he will study horticulture.

''The project has helped me go one step further than I would have," said Gates, who was considering a career as an engineer before taking on the senior project. ''I'm growing by leaps and bounds."

Because such a project is time consuming for students and staff, many high schools are reluctant to adopt it, said Bob Mackin, the original principal of Souhegan who is now director of America's Choice High Schools, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that assists schools with reform.

Suburban school systems balk at requiring senior projects because students ''are already overloaded with AP [advanced placement] classes," Mackin said. ''But there are pockets of schools putting things in place."

A senior project and other large-scale academic activities in the senior year do not totally eliminate senioritis. At Souhegan, students wrap up their projects in mid-April, leaving nearly two months of school before graduation.

Sarah Zall, 18, studied the history of the blues and its impact on American culture for her senior project. ''It prevented senioritis until it was over," Zall said, ''and then I hit the senior slump."

James Vaznis can be reached at jvaznis@globe.com.