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For some of us the experience of large, urban high schools in the 1980s was disappointing. Teachers seemed burned out and disengaged—there was little sense of community or caring, except from perhaps a few teachers. Classes were uninspired. Middle schools, on the other hand, had a house system that enabled teachers and students to really get to know each other. Classes were also more interesting—outdoor school and science fairs made science interesting.

Fortunately for kids today, many educators are recreating traditional high schools to include the personalized climate and structures similar to middle schools. They are realizing that schools around the country are not living up to the expectations of students, families, communities, and staff

Darcy, a 10th-grader at Rex Putnam High School in Milwaukie, Oregon, is fortunate to have a very positive high school experience. An articulate, poised young woman, Darcy has a clear sense of purpose for her education. The school's career exploration program—Future Focus—is helping her explore different options for a career, and gives her the opportunity to shadow professionals on the job. She became interested in being a neonatal nurse after she saw how a nurse takes care of the premature infants in a local hospital. To prepare for this career, she chose health services as her focused program of study. Darcy created her own personalized education plan and chose electives such as anatomy, physiology, and leadership that relate to health services.

The Career Pathways program has certainly made classes more meaningful for the students, and they are more likely not to skip school because the classes are important to them. One student apparently was going to participate in the traditional "senior skip day" but decided that "well, I have to go to this class, and I have to attend this other class, so I might as well go to all of them." Attendance is also more closely monitored when the students are in the same sequential block classes and have the same teachers.

Long before "smaller learning communities" and "personalized education" became the buzzwords in comprehensive high school reform, Putnam knew that changes needed to be made. In 1993, the 21st Century Site Council, a site-based decisionmaking group made up of teachers, classified staff, parents, students, and administrators, conducted a comprehensive schoolwide survey to gather perceptions of the school from staff, students, families, and community members. "There were a couple of surprise areas," remarked Kathy Campobasso, the school-to-careers coordinator. While the staff reported that they cared for the students and felt connected to them, the students reported feeling exactly the opposite—they didn't feel cared about at all and didn't feel like the faculty knew them. This disconnect jarred administrators; they decided to look at the data and research what other schools were doing to connect with their students.

At that time, the dropout rate and absentee rate were rising, and grades were low. The first thing Putnam did was address students' concern about not feeling known, and instituted what Putnam calls "Access Period." Access, a form of advisory period, began as one period every other day in which all students were assigned to a teacher. During this period, students could also have access to any teacher in the building, as long as they acquired a hall pass from that teacher in advance. Students used "Access" to complete make-up work, get help with homework, take tests, and work on projects.

Later, the school further personalized education by creating the house system for ninth- and 10th-graders, in which a group of 90 students take core classes together in block periods for two years, and have the same language arts, social studies, and science teachers together. Now, Access Periods occur within houses, so access teachers are even better known by students. "This is not just an unstructured study hall," says one teacher. It is a time when students can work with each other and with other teachers, or have more time to work on a project.

Putnam makes sure that incoming ninth-graders are connected even before they start school. The school invites eighth-graders to tour the high school on a special night each spring. On Freshman Assurance Day, the first day of school, a Link Crew leads the ninth-graders through the day—all the staff are lined up in the hallway clapping and welcoming the new students. Not only do staff show they care, but the upperclassmen are committed to mentoring and caring for their younger schoolmates.

Putnam did not make all these changes in just one year; the staff gradually implemented the new processes over an eight-year period. Nor was it easy. "Certainly it is difficult at first for teachers to lose autonomy," says Campobasso. A core group of teachers started the first house, got really excited about the process, and gradually the excitement caught on with the rest of the staff.

As a result of all these efforts, attendance rates are increasing and dropout rates are decreasing. The dropout rate for 2002–2003 reached an all-time low of 1.8 percent. These achievements have been accomplished without a schoolwide attendance policy, although each house sets its own policy. The emphasis, however, is far less on policies and more on what the school can do to make students' school experience meaningful. Maybe the lesson to be learned from Putnam is, if you create challenging, interesting classes, make sure students are cared about, and care about learning, then policies are less important.