Vista’s team operates on the belief that for students to succeed, they must feel supported, valued, and capable. The school has undertaken an innovative approach to holistic well-being and self-directed learning. Since participating in the XQ Super School Competition, Vista leaders and staff invite students to co-create learning experiences that are relevant, authentic, and meaningful to students’ interests and futures, all in an environment where it’s safe to take appropriate risks and to understand themselves as learners, prioritizing youth voice and choice for student growth and success.
The school’s Personalized Pathways align with students’ passions and post-secondary goals. For example, 10th-grade teachers collaborated with their students to imagine what a co-created semester might look like. The ELA and world history teachers laid out the standards and non-negotiables, and the students added their thoughts and ideas about how they might demonstrate their understanding. They put the characters of history and literary works on trial. To support teachers in shifting from the school’s former traditional style of classroom organization, the school’s leaders developed a cohort of peer-to-peer coaches who collaborate with teachers as thought partners to create new ideas for building student voice into learning experiences.
