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“AVID is designed to act as a safety net to improve organizational skills and create things that are going to help keeps kids from falling between the cracks and disappearing,” Randy Holmes, principal at Brown Middle School (BMS), said.
In preparation for the implementation of AVID, a number of administrators and teachers from DCS attended a 6-day training program in Atlanta over the summer.
“This program changes kids attitudes about school and helps them put it in the proper perspective. The hope is that students will take the practices they learn in AVID and apply them to high school and, hopefully, college,” Holmes said.
In its first year, the program targets students who statistically are not performing up to their capabilities. It teaches students important learning strategies, like Cornell notetaking practices and organizational skills, to increase their learning potential and abilities.
“Kids that are qualified [for AVID] are capable of achieving a higher level but sometimes they are not driven or led to do those kinds of things,” Holmes said. “They are kids just chomping at the bit, waiting to succced.”
Students use notetaking rubrics designed to help them gain understanding from their notes, which they may not have gotten using traditional methods. Also, a requirement of the program is the maintaining of an uber-organized 3-ring binder — which counts toward their overall academic grade.
In November, the students will be receiving a sleek briefcase-like organizer — a hallmark of the AVID program.
This year, AVID is a seventh-grade program with just over 20 students participating. These students receive AVID instruction during homeroom time. In efforts to create a sense of togetherness and belonging, these students attend all of their core classes together.
A team of three teachers oversee the AVID participants, offering instruction and assistance with academics, along with any other social distresses the students may encounter — a refreshing progressive strategy in a profession where teachers are often labeled as ‘teaching to the test’.
“The program isn’t just about academic support,” Shannon Moore, BMS English teacher and AVID instructor, said. “We are trying to create a support system here at school for these students. Whatever problems they may have [be it with academics, socially, or otherwise], we want them to know that there is someone they can turn to.”
She added, “It’s a team within a team. It is total student support in all areas.”
Initial reactions to the program have been positive, as these is already a waiting list of students wanting to be in the program. Parents will be invited to an orientation meeting next Thursday night. In the future, DCS hopes to expand the AVID program to some of its other schools.
“We have some high schools that are interested in it,” Holmes said. “We are looking into extending the program both horizontally and vertically.”
In the meantime, the program is enjoying success at both campuses. Students, as well as members of the staff, are buying into the AVID philosophy. Instructors believe AVID has found a way to instill and create sound academic practices without hindering a student’s individuality or creativity by offering a humanistic method of facilitating instruction.
“I don’t see us as stopping individuality or creativity,” Moore said. “If nothing else, we are enhancing it. It is evident in the activities that we do. Students are allowed to design and create. AVID just gives them a base from which to work from.”
Ultimately, the hope is that students achieving success with the program in the short term will experience long term success both academically and socially.
“We are trying to give them all the support they need to become stronger students,” Moore said. “If they internalize all of these strategies and do it by themselves.
“Personally, I want to see these students grow as individuals. While the state likes grades and scores, that’s not how children should be evaluated. They need to be evaluated on their morals and values and their willingness to do. Students need to learn more than how to take a test.”
Staff Writer Daniel Starling can be reached at 472-9500, ext. 231, or at dstarling@myway.com.