<!–

–><!–

–>

What We Need To Know | Resources

All Stories

<!–

–>

Comment

Print this Story | E-Mail this Story

<!–a href="#" target="_blank"></a–>

A program to help struggling students is gaining momentum. It’s now in more than 2,000 schools across the country, and 95 percent of its students go on to college. It’s called AVID, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. The premise is simple – challenge kids to work harder and they will.

Garrett was content with getting Cs in his classes.

“You didn’t want to become the super nerd, you know,” he says.

Now he’s taking classes like AP Chemistry – and he’s getting As. What happened? Garrett, a senior at Therrell High School in Atlanta, Ga., joined AVID, which puts average students at the school into honors and Advanced Placement classes.

“We’re changing the culture,” says Dr. Barbara Smith, AVID’s eastern division director. “Now it’s becoming a college-going culture. The college-going culture becomes the norm.”

Garrett is surrounded by students who study, do their homework and ask questions. The result is a kind of peer pressure to do the same.

“You don’t feel like you’re the only one doing it,” says Garrett. “You feel like others are doing it so that’s only the norm.”

The irony is Garrett is getting better grades because his classes are more challenging.

“By giving us harder classes, so to speak, you have more to do,” he admits. “You don’t become complacent.”

But program leaders say it’s not enough to simply raise expectations. Kids like Garrett need support. For example, Garrett has a class every day in study skills. He’s learning a specific method for taking notes.

“This is the silent C student or the forgotten majority,” says Smith. “So they’ve been sitting in our classrooms and some of them have been quiet and some of them have been loud. And so we say to them, ‘Sit up straight. Sit in the front of the class. Get out your notebook.’”

Garrett used to worry about getting into college – not anymore. So far he’s applied to four colleges.

What We Need To Know

• Average or C students make good candidates for the AVID program.




• The first year of participating in AVID, students sign a contract pledging to take at least one honors class. The goal is to have students gradually increase the rigor of their course load. AVID counselors assess the student’s ability and help students choose appropriate courses.




• AVID leaders say the program works because it raises expectations while providing students with support to meet those higher expectations. For one period a day, students take a class where they learn better study skills. For example, students learn to take “Cornell” notes, a specific note-taking method that helps students summarize and review important material.

Resources

• AVID Program Official Website




• About AVID




• Starting an AVID program at your school




• Cornell Notes

Top ˆ