American students drift through their final year of high-school wasting time and learning little, according to a national report.
"By the time many high school students get to their senior year they are ready to check out," said Richard Riley, former education secretary in the Clinton administration. Students in their final year "seem to come to a dead stop after they complete their college applications, and we are not doing enough to help the seniors who are not going on to college".
A commission convened by Mr Riley, which included incoming Bush administration education secretary Rod Paige, confirmed the stereotype that students spend their last year of high school hanging around with friends and listening to music.
Students in the United States take their university entrance tests in the penultimate year of high school, and send off their enrolment applications near the beginning of their final year. What they do after that point does not count in the admissions process -so long as they maintain a pass grade.
The federal report suggests that the senior year should be used to prepare graduating students for university-level work or job placements. Many employers complain that few students leave high school ready for the real world: 13 per cent of students at private universities need remedial work.
Yet the commission found that a third of students in their final year avoid taking mathematics, and two-thirds forgo science. Many drop out altogether; up to 40 per cent of students in urban areas fail to graduate within the four years of high school.
"Young people should not have to wait until they have a high-school diploma in hand to learn that they are unqualified for college-level courses or work," the panel's report says. "It is increasingly hard to justify permitting students to waste their senior year."