Trying to make schools work--and work for all--is far too often a daunting task. The stories of failure, of good intentions gone awry, of high hopes dashed are all too frequent. Succeeding pages tell a different story, that of the Urban Academy, a school that has thrived and well served New York City youngsters for eight years. The Academy has an attractive program, a deeply committed staff, and an ambiance that manages to turn problem students into members of an intellectual community largely free of the need for disciplinary measures. The school sees its mission as building intellectual capacity and confidence in its students, enabling them to become thoughtful, informed, open yet critical-minded young adults. There are many indications that it succeeds.The attempt in these pages is to provide more than a glowing show-and-tell account. It is to describe a limited number of the school's attributes in sufficient detail so that interested readers might be able to build on and adapt Urban Academy practice. Additionally, with the hope of occasioning helpful insights, this article attempts to identify the features and qualities that seem to make this school work so well.Urban Academy is a New York City-style school-within-a-school, or mini-school. It is an independent program housed within a building that also houses another, entirely separate program. The High School for the Humanities (HSH) is a large building located on 18th Street between 8th and 9th avenues. It is a semi-selective high school with 1,500 students. Altogether, nine of HSH's rooms have been given to the Urban Academy, a proram enrolling one hundred 10th through 12th graders.Urban Academy students must visit the school prior to an admissions interview and must fill out an application that requires brief thoughtful essays and solutions to general mathematics problems. It is not, however, a selective school, and admission is not based upon achievement or behavior. Indeed, many students entering from other high schools are quite explicit about seeing the Academy as Last Chance High. Student abilities, achievement, and performance span a wide range, although most Urban Academy students are minority and few are middle-class. What most share is a past that has included difficulties in accepting and dealing with school authority. When they enter, very few see themselves as college-bound. Yet according to Nadine, the staff member primarily responsible for college advisement, 95% of Urban Academy's students enter college after graduation. Essentially the only graduates who do not are those who enter the military.Because the Academy deliberately seeks students of diverse ability, not all become outstanding scholars. SAT scores range from below 400 to above 1400. Yet, all Urban students graduate, pass all six of the state's required competency tests, and none drop out. Moreover, when students leave Urban Academy, they do so following an experience that has subjected them to constant channeling, prodding, inspiration, and assistance in the intelligent use of their minds--a multi-year immersion in the exercise of higher intellectual processes.The Urban Academy grew out of an instructional program, an inquiry learning project developed several years ago by its two directors and operated by them in what eventually grew to be 12 New York City high schools. Begun initially as a staff development project for teachers, the program then evolved into a half-day instructional program for students. Eventually, the directors concluded that both youngsters' needs and staff interests might be better accommodated in a full-time school. Thus, Urban Academy opened in 1985 featuring an inquiry approach to learning.The schools initial staff consisted of interested people the two directors had met in the course of conducting the staff development project or had known earlier. Although some of these people had met one another at summer workshops associated with the demonstration project, they never worked to get and did not really know each other well at the onset. …