What keeps students engaged in high school? Persisting to high school graduation is becoming more difficult for many students with the increased rigor of American high school graduation requirements. While many factors that contribute to students not completing high school have been explored, and while many interventions have been developed to help them stay in school, the dropout rate remains a serious on-going problem. One recent intervention has focused on the role of engagement in helping students graduate from high school; the Career Academy. A case study of two western New York career academies was conducted to determine if and how career academies promoted high school student engagement. A focus group, survey, and observations were used to study student engagement. The study involved 35 career academy students. Results are discussed in relation to other intervention strategies to increase youth engagement and help students persist to high school graduation. The focus group session and the reported forms of school engagement revealed some evidence of the behavioral, emotional, and cognitive forms of school engagement. In addition, the observed forms of school engagement suggest that students were somewhat engaged while in the career academies. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]