Curing Senioritis: For many students, the last year of high school is nothing more than a time to coast and hang out with friends. Some educators think there's a better way.(Society)(Statistical Data Included)

The first symptoms surface right about now, between Thanksgiving and Christmas: unfinished homework, a lack of interest in studying for a big test. It gets a little worse when the first early-decision college acceptances are sent out next week. But the curious condition called senioritis really emerges full blown in January, after first-semester grades are in. That's a major milestone in what will be a wasted year academically for too many of the 3,049,000 members of the class of 2001. Whether they're headed for Harvard, a community college or a job selling jeans at the Gap, students feel they have "permission to coast," says Nancy Faust Sizer, a veteran teacher who is writing a book on the senior year called "Crossing the Stage."

But not James Dark, 17, of Essex, Md. By the end of the year, Dark, a senior at Eastern Technical High School, will complete an independent study project on digital music. He'll create a CD out of school band performances, write a paper on the process, design a…