Patti Smith

is a researcher with the Education Alliance of Brown University

Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates recently caused a stir with a speech decrying America's high schools as obsolete.

He said they were still designed for an outmoded mission, rooted in bygone times.

Gates suggested new operating principles for schools, a new set of the "three R's":

Rigor: Give all students challenging curriculum.Relevance: Connect courses to their lives.Relationships: Surround them with adults who push them to achieve.

Gates is not the only one who has discovered that high school is out of sync with the times. Working with the Education Alliance at Brown University, the National Association of Secondary Principals produced Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform, which offers 32 recommendations for effective high school change.

Each set of reform goals speaks to the culture, structure and content of high schools. These aspects must be addressed to achieve reform that embraces each and every student. No tinkering around the edges will suffice to save students from falling through the cracks, dropping out at alarming rates, giving up hope.

This waste in human potential has profound impact on our capacity to compete in the world economy and to sustain a just and equitable society.

My involvement in high schools developed out of my interest in kindergarten students I had taught and my own children's friends as they moved through the system. I noticed the discrepancy between the culture of elementary school, where one teacher cares for the students in her class, and high schools, where no one seems to take responsibility for the success of a student.

High school students can go through a whole day not once being called by name or being asked one personal question.

High schools need to shift from being places where students feel anonymous to places where students are known well by adults who care what happens to them. The culture must shift from being a place where people teach content to a place where people teach and learn from students with whom they have relationships, where teachers know their students' dreams, strengths and challenges, and want to coach them toward success. These are the kinds of relationships many high schoolers have today only with people such as coaches or drama teachers.

As part of a study two years ago, I and other researchers shadowed students through entire school days. We found the experience exhausting. We found that many classes were boring, honestly very boring. Students moved from room to room with no relationship from one subject to the next - a bit like channel surfing. Little effort was shown to connect material to students' daily lives. Disappointingly, we witnessed few exchanges between students and teachers, in class or outside.

In our work, we often do this exercise: We ask students to walk around their school looking for artifacts that describe what the school values and does not value. Often, the objects students cite are sports trophy cases and surveillance cameras.

Another exercise asks students how they would design schools that would enhance their learning experience. Students suggest rooms with rugs on the floor, plants in the windows, and chairs in circles, so that everyone has to look at each other during class. Students express a desire for schools to be more beautiful.

High schoolers also would like to connect the work they do outside of school with the courses they take in school.

As communities consider the design of their high schools, a few hopes: May creating a culture of success be a priority. May the experiences and ideas of students be integral to creating a new vision. May the new design help create a positive, supportive community among the people who walk the halls each day.