Kids need to be connected to the school and they need to feel someone cares about them. In a large school setting it can be extremely impersonal. There's nothing worse than a student in a large setting not being connected to anything. That's the height of loneliness.
We need to know what kids are saying, we need to know what their needs are, how they perceive those needs. But we also need to know what do they see about their school that's working, what do they see that's not working?
The high schools that we have, and it's not just locally but nationally, are designed for a different purpose, a different time and a different place -- and it doesn't meet the educational needs of kids today.