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STORY: Three Principals on How Their Schools Bounced Back

STORY: Three Principals on How Their Schools Bounced Back
Posted on 01/28/2025

SAN DIEGO -- Covid reshaped education. The pandemic led to years of virtual learning, which led to deep learning loss for many students. Even years after they’ve returned to in-person instruction, and billions of dollars of recovery funding later, many haven’t caught up.  

A new analysis by Voice of San Diego underscores that discouraging reality – only about 13 percent of San Diego County schools are outperforming where they were prior to the pandemic. 

The list of schools that bucked the trend is a mixed bag: relatively high-performing and low-performing schools, very diverse schools and ones that are less so, schools that made great strides in performance and ones that just barely outpaced where they were before the pandemic.  

East Village Middle College High, an atypical San Diego Unified high school where students take classes at local community colleges, saw a combined 40-percentage-point leap in the number of students meeting state English and math standards. Of the schools on the list, the high school made the biggest leap. 

Principal Mitch Booz, who took the helm about eight years ago, says a big part of the change came from rapid evolution. 

“Within three years, this school changed its name, changed its design, changed its schedule, changed its calendar, and brought on additional coursework that we felt would be more attentive to the needs of our students,” Booz said. “As a small site, we are nimble.” 

Booz said he encourages his teachers to err on the side of trying something new. That willingness to experiment has allowed the school to drastically expand its collaborations with San Diego City College, where the school is co-located. Each year, the school has a handful of students who graduate high school with a two-year community college degree as well. It also helps that unlike other much larger schools, reaching a consensus among staff about all the new experiments is much easier. 

But another key to the school’s success is its staff, Booz said. East Village has relatively low turnover and high stability – which for a school whose teachers often need a slew of credentials because they’re expected to teach multiple courses is a huge asset. Its unique structure also allows students access to not only a high school counselor, but a part-time community college counselor, meaning each student gets ample attention each and every semester.  

Read entire article from Voice of San Diego: https://voiceofsandiego.org/2025/01/24/three-principals-on-why-their-schools-bounced-back/