Most policy makers and administrators know that by itself good instruction delivered by highly qualified teachers is not enough to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school. Schools continue to suffer from high dropout rates of students and staff, an achievement gap that resists closure, a high incidence of schools designated as low performing, and the tendency for achievement test score averages to plateau after a few years of gains. Simply stated, prevailing policy and practice have not effectively dealt with these matters. In particular, student engagement and disengagement are poorly addressed in most efforts to improve schools and schooling. Current practices often work against enhancing engagement and result in many students disconnecting from classroom instruction. This special issue discusses (1) school engagement, re-engagement, and learning supports (2) intrinsic motivation basics, (3) motivation as a key concern of any intervention, (4) the need to go beyond reinforcement theory, (5) the problem of over-relying on extrinsics, (6) psychological reactance and re-engagement, and (7) school climate as an emergent quality.