Fighting High School Senior Slump
The Spread of an Alternative Senior Program

by Taron Wade
Copyright June, 1999, Phi Delta Kappan. Reprinted with Permission

When Eric Zweig, a high school senior, finished his morning classes on a typical Tuesday, he rushed right home. But he didn't call his friends, play video games, or go to the park for a basketball game. Instead, he changed into a suit and tie, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and caught the 12:55 p.m. train to New York City. During the second half of his senior year, Eric worked in the research department of the American Stock Exchange. Riding the train into the city and not returning home until 7 p.m. became part of his normal schedule, as natural as going to classes and hanging out with his friends.

At Woodlands High School in Hartsdale, New York, a student like Eric is the rule, not the exception. His classmates held internships at architectural firms, Planned Parenthood, dentists' offices, and television and radio stations. Some made documentaries or pursued independent study in music, photography, or car mechanics. But how did they maintain jobs and learn independently when they were right in the middle of their senior year?

These opportunities were made possible through a program known as WISE (Woodlands Individualized Senior Experience), which allows students to design and carry out their own projects during the second semester of their senior year. Students receive English, social studies, and physical education credit for participating in the program, which frees up most of their school day to work on their projects. Woodlands High School, where the program originated, officially launched it in 1973 to battle the infamous "senior slump", a time when students have already applied to college and are "simply waiting around to graduate," according to Victor Leviatin, the social studies teacher who pioneered a pilot program in his class in 1971.

In that year, as an experimental program, Leviatin offered his 12th-grade students 10 weeks at the end of the second semester to do a sociological project. "The students did wonderful kinds of work - from the study of graffiti to the lack of practice of good samaritanism," he recounted. After the success of the fledgling program, Leviatin and Andrew Courtney, an art teacher at Woodlands, directed the creation of the WISE program. "It soon became an important part of the school's life," Leviatin noted. "Students were celebrating senior year instead of leaving with a whimper."

But Woodlands High is no longer the only place where this type of program exists. In 1991 three retired teachers - Leviatin, Courtney, and Olga Lara, who had taught social studies, formed WISE Services, a not-for-profit organization, to help other schools develop similar programs. With a staff of nine, headed by Leviatin, WISE Services travels to schools to give information presentations about WISE and provide support, in the form of workshops, to schools that have commenced their own senior experience programs. Schools have joined the network of WISE programs at an average rate of five per year. As a result of work by the WISE Services staff, 37 schools across the country are now offering similar programs for their seniors.

The most important tenet of WISE, as explained by WISE Services staff members, is that it allows a student control in designing his or her own project. Sometimes the project includes an internship, but that is not essential. Leviatin explains, "We found a program that brings the current economy and research performed at universities into students' lives - in most high schools there is a 10-to 15-year gap between what happens and what kids learn." Although at first glance the program may seem to give students too much freedom, it is, in fact, quite structured. Students must keep a daily journal, have weekly meetings with a mentor of their choice, do research, and make a final presentation, which is evaluated by fellow students, teachers, and community members.

Those students, teachers, and community members constitute the task force, which is essential to the implementation and maintenance of WISE. Leviatin and his staff always present WISE to schools as a changing and dynamic program, in which the task force makes all planning decisions and constantly evaluates and improves the process. "Collaboratively, learning communities are formed, and teens are seen in a more positive light," Leviatin stresses. "WISE empowers young people and parents who are working together with teachers as equals." Approximately 15 to 20 people make up the task force, and all members contribute to the group equally, regardless of age and seniority, which would not occur in a traditional classroom setting.

The task force does not grade students, but after the public presentation, in a closed session, a team of evaluators composed of students, teachers, and parents summarize their impressions, both positive and negative, of a student's project. After the oral evaluation, the mentor writes a final evaluation.

Right now, 13 of the 37 senior programs exist at schools in Westchester County, New York. However, the most recent additions have been East High School and Abraham Lincoln High School in Denver, Colorado, and Evanston Township High School in Illinois. There are also schools with individualized senior experiences in Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts. All these programs are structured by community members, under the guidance of WISE Services, and custom-designed to fit local school cultures.

Through the hard work and determination of three retired teachers, WISE Services has given students across the country the opportunity to experience a similar "transformation." However, the three could never have managed to build a 12-member board of directors, an eight-person advisory board, and a nine-person staff without the support of teachers, students, and community members who believed in the program. The testament to the success of the WISE programs will always be the graduates who help spread the idea to other schools, who serve on task forces year after year, who mentor new WISE students, and who work with the students in their fields of interest. The network of alumni and schools involved in the program drives its success and will ensure that more students have the opportunity to create their own senior experiences.

To find out how WISE Services can help your school district set up a program, write, phone or e-mail Victor Leviatin, executive director, 29 Old Tarrytown Rd, White Plains, NY 10603; phone: 914/428-1968; e-mail: [email protected].