As experiential education attempts to achieve more prominent influence in school reform efforts, organisations often bring adventure into the classroom. This paper will use the Project Adventure RESPECT Program as a means to explore the challenge of implementing a system-wide experientially-based programme as an agent for whole school social and academic change. Developed to address the current requirements of evidence-based research in United States education, this programme provides valuable insights into the use of experiential methods in traditional school settings. Initial results and conclusions will be discussed from the first two years of this three-year research project. (Contains 1 figure.)