Featured Middle Grades Organization
AVID—
Preparing All Students for Success
TCSII will routinely feature an organization working on behalf of middle grades education in California. We encourage you to explore the featured organization in-depth and learn more about how they can support your efforts to ensure success and close the achievement gap in the middle grades.
The Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) is a college-readiness system designed to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges.
Although AVID serves all students, it focuses on the least served students in the academic middle. The formula is simple—raise expectations of students and, with the AVID support system in place, they will rise to the challenge.
AVID's mission is to close the achievement gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society. The AVID program levels the playing field for minority, rural, low-income, and other students without a college-going tradition in their families. Developed in 1980 by Mary Catherine Swanson, AVID has seen steady growth throughout California, nationally, and internationally in the last 30 years.
The California Department of Education (CDE) works with AVID regional offices and the AVID Center to expand and support the AVID programs in local middle and high schools.
At the middle level, AVID students are enrolled in their school's toughest classes, and receive support in an academic elective class—called AVID—taught within the school day by a trained AVID teacher.
In the accelerated elective class, AVID students receive support through a rigorous curriculum and ongoing, structured tutorials. AVID elective teachers support AVID students by providing academic training, managing their tutorials, working with faculty and parents, and by helping students develop long-range academic and personal plans.
What differentiates AVID from other educational reform programs is its astounding success rate. Since 1990, more than 65,300 AVID students have graduated from high school and planned to attend college. Of the 2009 AVID graduates, 92 percent planned to attend college; 60 percent to a four-year college and 32 percent to a two-year college.
To learn more about AVID and how it prepares middle grades students for college, please visit AVID (Outside Source). To learn more about AVID’s success in our nation’s middle schools—many of which are in California, read AVID "In the News" (Outside Source).
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