Great articles in The Oregonian about the outdated ("factory") model of the comprehensive high school:

Anthony Ramirez looks back fondly on elementary school, when he earned good grades, devoured books about dinosaurs and kept a diary of his imaginary journey on the Oregon Trail.

He hated to miss a day of school, even when he was sick. But by the time he reached high school, he rarely picked up a book. He skipped classes to go skateboarding.

There are success stories however:

Three guiding principles

From its inception, Southridge had a mandate to break the mold. It was designed by the principal, teachers and parents. They settled on three traits that would define their school: relationships, rigor and relevance.

How do they do it?

Give all students a teacher adviser to nurture and nudge them at least twice a week for all four years.

Create a schedule that reduces the typical teacher load to 120 students, not 150 or more.

Offer scores of advanced classes. Instead of making it difficult for students to get into those courses, they make it hard to avoid them.