The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (the Met) is a unique public high school in Providence, Rhode Island. The Met has no classes, no grades, no tests, and no easy rides. With guidance from adults, each student builds a customized education focused on five learning goals: communication, social reasoning, empirical reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and personal qualities. Students spend 2 days per week at internships that they select based on their interests. But the Met is not a vocational school; the goal is to create versatile, motivated learners--not to prepare students for specific careers. The Met has little in common with most schools. Students study fewer topics but in far more depth. Rather than learning only with same-age peers, they work closely with adults inside and outside of school. Instead of taking tests, they give public exhibitions of what they have learned. Instead of letter grades, they receive detailed narratives written by their teachers. Each student's learning team--teacher, parents, student, and internship mentor--meets quarterly to assess the student's progress and plan the next quarter's activities. Chapter 1 chronicles the learning journeys of three diverse Met students. Chapters 2-8 explore the Met's unique mix of learning strategies. Chapter 9 assesses the Met's effectiveness, and chapter 10 discusses adapting the Met's principles to other schools. The book ends with a glimpse of graduation and an afterword by the school's co-directors. (Contains 67 references and an index.) (TD)