The stories from our "Every Student Deserves a Legacy" series document what it's like to be part of one of the country's most concentrated efforts to reinvent urban high schools. They share the day-to-day struggles and triumphs of educators and students working to transform underperforming large urban high schools into small personalized schools or to pioneer schools that blend high school and college learning. Written by a team of freelance writers who spent hours in the classrooms and hallways throughout the school year, they tell the true stories of why it's so hard to change schools and how, despite the obstacles, change is taking place.