Research on school reform and implementation has found that past efforts to scale up interventions in schools often results in little change in the core work of teaching and learning (Elmore, 1996). That is, there are often few changes in the work students do with teachers. Thus it is important for researchers and school reformers to know how students experience the school. Learning about the student experience is particularly important given the Center's emphasis on essential components of effective schools such as personalized learning connections, quality of instruction, and culture of learning. This paper uses data collected from shadowing high school students for a full day. The overarching research question guiding this paper is: What is the student experience in high schools and how does it vary by school effectiveness? Data come from the National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools intensive case study research in eight high schools across two large urban districts in Florida and Texas.