State Hoping To Pump Up High Schools

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January 25, 2006
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer

If 18-year-old Jose Rios could do it all over again, he would get ready for college by taking tougher courses during high school.

"For the most part, I tried to take it easy," said Rios, a first-year student at Manchester Community College, where, based on test scores, he had to enroll in a remedial English course last summer to qualify for college-level classes.

Rios, of East Hartford, did not know what to expect at college and concedes that his high school years could have been better spent - including his senior year, when he avoided more rigorous courses and succumbed to what educators call senioritis, or the senior slide.

"I was on the top of the slide going down," Rios says.

His experience is all too common for thousands of young people, according to a state committee that is looking for ways to revamp high schools, motivate students and make the high school experience, including the senior year, more productive.

As early as next month, the committee is expected to issue a preliminary draft suggesting potentially dramatic changes in high schools, possibly including off-campus experiences, college-level courses or student projects designed to pump new life into secondary education.

Over the years, high school "hasn't significantly changed, and our kids are suffering," said state Education Commissioner Betty J. Sternberg, who expects to make recommendations to the legislature next year based on the advisory committee's report.

She said research studies have found that many high school students complain of boredom.

The question, she said, is: "How do you hook kids into something interesting to them and get them to be analytical and creative?"

The study is part of a national movement to re-examine and reform high schools, spurred by concern over stagnant achievement test scores, a lack of challenging courses and discouraging dropout rates.

Especially in urban schools, "many of the students who do not drop out altogether attend irregularly, exert modest effort on schoolwork, and learn little," said a 2003 report by the National Research Council.

The senior year, when even the brightest seniors often look for easier courses, cut back on homework and ratchet down their academic goals, is ripe for reform, some educators say.

Experts say the problem is far more serious for disadvantaged students, including those who have avoided rigorous courses altogether or who are applying to less selective colleges.

"The senior slump has been around so long it has become part of American high school culture," Stanford University Professor Michael W. Kirst wrote in a 2001 report that included recommendations to reclaim the senior year.

Kirst said the consequences of a less rigorous schedule include a rising demand for remedial courses in college and poor academic skills among high school graduates who enter the workforce or the military.

"I don't believe my high school prepared me at all," said Kevnesha Boyd, 18, who enrolled at Eastern Connecticut State University after graduating from Hartford's Weaver High School last spring. "The teachers never pushed us. I took Algebra II, and we weren't doing anything at all. In English class, I never wrote a research paper."

Kirst said part of the problem is that colleges rarely let high school students know what is expected of them or whether they are ready for college work.

"High schools can't motivate these kids on their own," he said. Students "need to know why the senior year is important."

He cited a California State University program that tests high school juniors on college readiness and, for those who fall short, recommends what they should do during their senior year.

A report five years ago by the National Commission on the High School Senior Year, sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Education, suggested alternative possibilities for seniors, such as allowing them to start college early, enroll in courses at technical colleges or work in internships or apprenticeship programs aimed at specific careers.

In Connecticut, members of the advisory committee commissioned by Sternberg have talked about creating alternatives, including some off-campus options, for high school seniors.

"What would happen if 25 to 30 percent [of seniors] didn't have to come for one-third of the year and were sitting in college classes or doing internships in the work world?" asked Wayne Sweeney, a consultant to the state committee.

One program already underway is a longstanding arrangement that allows qualified high school juniors and seniors to take courses at Connecticut's two-year community colleges.

"It gives them a sense of what college is like," said Doris Arrington, dean of student services at Hartford's Capital Community College, where 60 to 70 high school students earn credits every semester.

The senior slide occurs even among students who have packed their schedules with tough courses during their first three years in high school - especially those students who receive early admission notices from colleges.

"Once you get into college, the pressure is off," said Matt Babcock, a senior at West Hartford's Hall High School who plans to attend the University of Notre Dame. He still carries a schedule that includes advanced courses in physics, calculus and economics, but estimates he spends about half as much time on homework as he once did.

"It's nice to have not as stressful a life for half a year," he said.

Some schools have tried to find ways to keep seniors engaged. Hall, for example, allows seniors to drop one of their second-semester courses and replace it with a self-designed project, including off-campus assignments such as working as a teaching assistant at an elementary school or doing an internship in a business or government office.

One senior, Alyson Isaac, came up with a novel idea: She plans to write and film a mock documentary on senioritis.

The project, she said, will take a tongue-in-cheek look at what it's like to be a senior.

"How do we amuse ourselves when we have nothing left to do second semester?" Isaac asked.