For more information visit AVID Online at http://www.avid.org/
“AVID's mission is to close the achievement gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society.”
AVID is designed to increase school wide learning and performance. The focus of AVID is to ensure that all students and most especially the least served students in the middle, capable of completing a college preparatory path, will succeed in rigorous curriculum, will enter mainstream activities of the school, will increase their enrollment in four-year universities and colleges, and will become educated and responsible participants in a democratic society.
AVID is an academic, regularly scheduled elective class based on writing as a tool of learning, inquiry method, and collaborative grouping. The three main components of the program are academic instruction, tutorial support, and motivational activities. The goal of AVID is to educate the "whole student." This is achieved by unifying six important elements of education: students, curriculum, faculty, tutors, parents and community.
The AVID curriculum, based on over 30 years of research and rigorous standards, is developed by middle and senior high school teachers in collaboration with college professors, and emphasizes teaching pedagogy which focuses on writing-to-learn, inquiry, collaboration and reading for comprehension. This allows college preparatory classes to be accessible to all students.
Tutors working with students during the AVID elective classroom setting is a hallmark of the program. As students from colleges and universities, tutors also serve as role models. Tutors are trained at the district level to provide academic support. They receive 16 hours of instructional training in writing, inquiry, collaboration and reading for comprehension. Tutors use Socratic dialogue while facilitating their group. Students learn a small group tutorial format analogous to study groups in the college setting.
Both AVID and IB recognize the potential in all students. Both programs focus on the student as the center of the process, dealing with the whole child and providing the framework and the opportunity through which students can learn to be successful. This seems collaboration is just natural. Working together will can help more students to success.
IB provides a widely recognized, rigorous curriculum and assessment scheme that gives AVID students the perfect opportunity to demonstrate and apply the skills they have learned through AVID. The teaching practices in IB classrooms, the emphasis on learning skills and the many options for students to work towards their strengths all come together to allow AVID students to make that final step to post-secondary admission and success. IB has ample evidence that IB students are admitted, retained, and graduate at higher rates than the general population and those statistics include many students in IB schools with AVID strengths behind them.
In our own backyard, we have been able to demonstrate a clear connection between success in middle school AVID and completion of the IB's Diploma Programme at Laurel HS. Over half of the students from Dwight D. Eisenhower MS completing the IB's Diploma Programme ar Laurel HS are former AVID students
