Schools

Venice High Looks to New Leader

Principal Elsa Mendoza is creating small learning communities to help boost academic achievement at the school.

This year may be the turning point for Venice High, which  has struggled with poor academic performance and a high dropout rate in recent years.

Not only will the school celebrate its centennial this spring, classes are undergoing a reorganization, and at the head of it all is a new principal, Dr. Elsa Mendoza.

"I really love the sense of community here in Venice and at the high school," Mendoza, 36, said. "I'm really happy to be here, and I'm really excited about the opportunity to have an impact on academic achievements for all our students."

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It's a big group. With almost 3,000 students, Venice High is one of L.A.'s bigger high schools, which is one reason Mendoza signed on.

"I really wanted to go to a comprehensive high school, a pre-established school," she said. "There's a big trend in the district right now to start up small schools, with less than 500 students, but the bigger schools carry a very rich tradition."

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Last year, Mendoza was the assistant principal at Huntington Park High School. Before that position, she was principal at Odyssey Continuation School in South Gate.

Mendoza earned her bachelor's degree in education at USC, as well as a Master of Science degree in curriculum and instruction. She got a second masters from Cal State Los Angeles before earning her doctorate in education back at USC. Along with these credentials, Mendoza finds time to be a parent to her two children, ages 2 and 11.

"I have a very strong family support, so I've been lucky that I've been able to pursue my career goals," Mendoza said.

She has her work cut out for her this year.

Despite the fact that for each of the last four years, attendance and graduation rates have increased at Venice High, it has had trouble meeting the goals of  California's Academic Performance Index (API).

From 2009 to 2010, Venice High's APIs fell for every subgroup measured, except for white students. This discrepancy is something Mendoza is well aware of.

"I want to make sure that that's something that the school is consistently looking at, how we can achieve the academics of our subgroups."

The subpar performance of those groups is why Venice is in its fourth year of state-mandated "performance improvement," which complies with the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

"We focus on math and English/language arts, because we see those as the keys to academic success," Mendoza said. "In math, we saw a tiny increase in percentage in proficiency last year."

One of the ways Venice High staff hope to achieve better test scores (and a more personalized education) is by dividing into four small learning communities, or SLCs.

This will be the first year for SLCs at Venice High, and, as with any change, they have been met with confusion from students, who are wondering how they will be assigned to one of the four SLCs, and what it will mean.

The groups, which will be academically specialized, have not yet been determined, but Mendoza expects them to be finalized by the end of the semester.

This year's freshmen will get to choose their community for next year. Older students will choose or be placed into communities.

Perhaps this will be just the change Venice High needs. Mendoza has high hopes for SLCs, for the year and for all her students.

"I have high expectations for seniors. I expect them to be the role models for the underclassmen, and I expect them to continue to pursue their dreams," she said. "I expect them all to graduate."

For the freshmen, Mendoza is just as optimistic: "My advice is to dream big and enjoy high school. I want them to have a Venice High School that is academically challenging and also just a fun place to be."


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