Report Examines Motivation Among Students

By John Gehring

A report unveiled by the National Research Council last week paints a grim picture of high schools unlikely to surprise teachers and students, but argues that those schools can learn from an array of promising changes taking root across the nation.

Drawing on years of research in psychology, education, and sociology, "Engaging Schools: Fostering High School Students' Motivation to Learn" shows that by the time many students reach high school, they often lack any sense of purpose or real connection with what they are doing in the classroom.

Although the best high schools are filled with well-qualified and caring teachers in a setting where all students are valued, the book-length report says, for too many teenagers, high school has become an impersonal place where...