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.

Student Outcomes

Vista’s class of 2022 graduation rate was 86.1 percent, higher than the district’s rate of 72.1 percent and just below the state’s rate of 88.3 percent.

One in ten Vista 12th graders earned college credits during high school (11 percent), according to XQ’s Senior Survey of the class of 2022. And eight in ten Vista 12th graders said they felt at least somewhat prepared for the future (81 percent). Of those students, over half said they had developed creativity and problem-solving skills (56 percent) and collaboration skills (54 percent), strengths that would serve them well in the future.