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Does anyone have any experience with the AVID program in the school where their kid goes? What is it exactly, what can be expected?
It is a high school college prep class for credit that emphasizes college success skills, study skills, organization, note taking, etc. It is available for all four years.
I am a site team member for the AVID program at my school. It is definitely a great program, and a great percentage of those AVID kids go on to college and are successful. AVID begins in middle school with teaching kids college-readiness skills, such as note-taking, critical thinking, and emphasizing Socratic discussions. These same skills are reinforced in high school, but on a more rigorous level. College-tutors come about two days a week to help AVID students with their school work. Also, the kids take 2 (maybe more) college field trips each year. I've seen AVID turn around the least-motivated kids. Although it targets those "middle kids", I've seen high-performing kids go into the program and really improve their academic skills. I've been to two intensive AVID summer trainings. In my 5 years of teaching, it is the most successful academic improvement program that I have seen.
The school, both middle/jr. high and high school, have to be committed to the program. If not it just becomes "something we tried". That happens more often than we'd like to admit.
Thanks very much for your comments. The school sounds very committed, this is a very well regarded school district and I think my child would be a good fit for it. He is very bright with good to marginal grades, in that he needs help in the motivation and organization skills and also to sharpen up his study skills. In our district they start this in high school only. During the interview, they also stated that it has turned kids around. And about the college trips. They also indicated there is a bit of a parental involvement which would definitely be OK, esp. w/ a teen.
Does anyone have any experience with the AVID program in the school where their kid goes? What is it exactly, what can be expected?
It is a high school college prep class for credit that emphasizes college success skills, study skills, organization, note taking, etc. It is available for all four years.
It's in our local middle school. From what I've seen, it generally takes kids who are unprepared for advanced classes and puts them there anyway, where most of them act out and don't do their schoolwork, and otherwise require the schools to water down advanced academics.
I know of one other school system in Florida that uses it, and with pretty much the same results.
I'm glad to hear that it apparently works somewhere.
I am a site team member for the AVID program at my school. It is definitely a great program, and a great percentage of those AVID kids go on to college and are successful. AVID begins in middle school with teaching kids college-readiness skills, such as note-taking, critical thinking, and emphasizing Socratic discussions. These same skills are reinforced in high school, but on a more rigorous level. College-tutors come about two days a week to help AVID students with their school work. Also, the kids take 2 (maybe more) college field trips each year. I've seen AVID turn around the least-motivated kids. Although it targets those "middle kids", I've seen high-performing kids go into the program and really improve their academic skills. I've been to two intensive AVID summer trainings. In my 5 years of teaching, it is the most successful academic improvement program that I have seen.
It actually can begin in elementary in some schools/districts. AVID Elementary is in fourth and fifth grades in our district.
They did mention that the goal was to get the kids to develop skills to succeed in college and also prep them for advanced classes in junior and senior years. That is the only part of it I am worried about, the advanced classes thing.
They did mention that the goal was to get the kids to develop skills to succeed in college and also prep them for advanced classes in junior and senior years. That is the only part of it I am worried about, the advanced classes thing.
Forgive the length of this post, Gardener...
Okay, well, here's my take on it. NOTE: I am not an AVID teacher, but I have worked with AVID students.
My bottom line: AVID is effective at doing what it seeks to do, which is not teaching core knowledge, but teaching something more fundamental: core behaviors.
Central to AVID, from my understanding, is the idea that many lower-income or otherwise-disadvantaged students could be successful in school if only they had the behavioral skill set that comes "naturally" to more-advantaged students -- including behaviors such as sitting in the front of the class, making eye contact with the teacher, keeping organized notebooks, and speaking respectfully to those in authority.
In short, one of the philosophical underpinnings here is that AVID is about social class, not brains. Teach students how to behave like members of a more academically-successful social group, and they will experience greater academic success.
By and large, this is true.
That said, though, AVID can only do so much WRT advanced classes. In my experience, students who experience success in advanced classes possess at least one of the following fundamental skills: They're inherently good at the material, and/or they really want to learn.
What kids from academically-disadvantaged backgrounds usually lack is the "background information" possessed by academically-advantaged kids. Case in point: Similar students were divided into two groups based on their knowledge of skateboarding (i.e., those who liked skateboarding and those who did not). Then, they were given a reading passage about famous skateboarder Tony Hawk. Guess which group had "better reading comprehension"?
What I'm saying is that if your son wants to take advanced classes, he's going to have to work -- and work assiduously -- on giving HIMSELF that background information BEFORE he takes the class.
Let's say he's taking AP Bio and you're worried he'll fail because he lacks the background. Here's what I would do if I were your son:
1. Find out the textbook NOW.
2. Get it cheap or used on Amazon.
3. Read every single major unit.
4. Go to the library and check out Discovery Channel or National Geographic films on the subject
5. Go to YouTube and search for videos that explain hard-to-understand concepts. There are TONS of helpful videos.
In other words, by the time he actually takes the class, he'll have built up a considerable reserve of background information -- information that will help him understand the concepts. AVID will not help him do that, though.
Thanks for the great info. I especially like the behaviors part, I got that from the discussion with the program leader too. Which is what he really does need. We cannot seem to motivate him in regards to the organization, etc. He is interested in many subjects. Which is another thing we are hoping that avid will help him with. Deciding what he is most interested in and is good at. Right now, the district pretty much has him the same core classes every other freshman takes: biology, algebra, spanish 1, health/pe, language arts, global issues & avid of course is to be taken as his elective.
He is kind of interested in biology/chemistry for now though although has made comments that it is hard for him, but he does find it interesting, which is promising. And he does like history a lot.
Good idea about the text books, esp. over the summer.
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