As the dropout problem has grown--and as increasing numbers of students have started to see dropping out as a viable option for expressing their disaffection with school--practitioners, policymakers, and researchers have looked more closely at the factors that lead students to disengage from school and have attempted to find ways to create conditions for engagement and persistence within schools. A wide disparity exists between the perceptions of students and the perceptions of adults in schools about the student experience--in particular, why students engage in or disengage from school. This disparity is a key area to address for school leaders whose goal is to create a culture of engagement. Most students cited factors within the schools as reasons that they felt disconnected from school, factors that are within the purview of principals and other school leaders. Nevertheless, student engagement is not a policy to be implemented, but rather a culture to be created. This article discusses five principles that serve as a starting guide in creating that culture of engagement: (1) Know what the students think; (2) Believe what students say and care about what students think; (3) Set a clear purpose for education in the school and ensure that it is enacted by everybody in the school community; (4) Create structures and processes that meet the learning needs of the students, not just the needs of the adults; and (5) Engage all students deeply and equally.