Senior Year in High School Revisited
Developing Programs Addressing Post Graduation Student Needs
It may be time to reassess senior year in American high schools. Although many graduating seniors move on to a college experience, often without adequate preparation, many graduates put off college, perhaps due to increasing tuition costs and greater difficulties in securing financial aid, while some enter the work force immediately. To what extent does the senior year prepare students for the various post-graduation scenarios?
Adequate Preparation for the College Experience
A new study conducted by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University details that out of 250,000 participants, 36% of students referred for remedial Math courses did not even complete the required work. (Elyse Ashburn, “Many Students Don’t Even Attempt Remedial Courses, Study Finds,” Chronicle of Higher Education, January 19, 2009) The study prompts important questions:
- Should the college expectation be universal?
- Does the need for remedial work indict American high schools?
- Are students being pressured to go to college when they might not be ready?
- If college is a goal determined by high school educators, what must be done to better prepare students?
Even top tier students that fall in the highest academic percentile, though not in need of remedial work, often find that they begin the college experience unprepared. Some have never been taught to research or write papers. Others have difficulty communicating ideas in group discussions. If this is true of students coming out of upper level classes, it highlights even greater academic challenges for the average student.
Senior Year as a Review
Notwithstanding state standards and requirements (four years of English, Math, and Science, for example), the high school senior year could be recast as a year of review and, as needed, pre-college remedial work before awarding a diploma. Designing specific curricula to facilitate such goals would do far more in promoting success during the freshman year in college than dead-end electives or courses not within state required guidelines.
Additionally, high schools should develop courses that address the needs of students not entering college. This would include everything from tax preparation, balancing a checkbook, buying a home, interviewing for a job, to creating a resume. Some arguments suggest that such practical skills also help college bound graduates, soon to be flooded with credit cards offers.
In most high schools, the senior year represents the final year of strenuous academic work. Students take AP courses, build their resumes with activities, and hope that application to early admissions programs net a berth at a prestigious university. And while all of that is worthwhile, high schools miss the mark by ignoring, often unwittingly, the many seniors that will enter Community Colleges or go straight into the work force.
If our legal statutes require the state to provide an equal education to all students, high schools need to refocus the often inordinate attention given to a fraction of the graduating classes that tend to represent the highest academic qualifications and achievements. This will mean a reassessment of the senior year. It will also mean addressing the findings of studies like the Columbia study noted above. The very fact that high school graduates require remedial work in English and Math should send a signal that there may be a weakness in the curriculum. This can be corrected in the senior year of high school.
Graduation
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