AVID

The AVID Elective is first and foremost a college readiness course. Your student was nominated or selected because he/she is showing potential to not only enroll and succeed in rigorous courses, but to be on track to attend any college. AVID is not a remedial course. Students in the AVID Elective enroll in rigorous courses and receive the support needed to succeed in those courses.

Your student has been identified as someone who has potential and could benefit from the skills that will be taught and the peer community in the AVID Elective class. The educators at your student’s school believe your child can improve and succeed academically as they prepare for college and a career with the help of AVID.

AVID is designed to increase school-wide learning and performance. The mission of AVID is to see more students enroll and find success in four-year colleges.

AVID:

• teaches study and organizational skills
• strengthens writing skills
• gives tutorial help
• teaches students to work collaboratively to be successful in the most rigorous courses
• takes students to visit colleges and universities
• assists students with the application process for four-year colleges and universities
• helps students explore careers through guest speakers

Students in the academic middle often move through our educational systems without any special recognition, positive or negative. While many of these students go on to graduate from high school, they are often not college-ready upon graduation. When a school has AVID, students in the AVID Elective and throughout the school are held to higher expectations and given the support they need to succeed and prepare for postsecondary opportunities. By pushing students into more rigorous coursework, encouraging, assisting, and advocating for them every day, AVID greatly increase their likelihood of making it to and through college.

While the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) describe “what” students should know, AVID strategies provide “how” students will learn and master the knowledge and skills needed to meet the standards. The expectations of AVID align with CCSS in many ways and are embedded within the curriculum to meet the rigorous expectations. For example, the higher-level thinking skills required by the CCSS (i.e., analyzing, comparing, inferring) are the exact skills that AVID has promoted and used to design its curriculum for the last 30 years. 

The Nike Innovation Fund has generously committed to support Grants Pass High School's implementation of AVID starting at the 9th-grade level. Combined with school resources, the foundation of AVID is being built for the support of our students. For students and families, this wonderful program comes at no cost.

You can help your AVID student by:

• discussing upcoming family events and dates and marking them on your student's calendar
• discussing which tutoring group they will join on tutoring day
• occasionally reviewing a page of notes in one of their classes
• using questions developed by your student to help them review for concepts and tests
• sharing your own struggles to be organized and encouraging students to take time to keep binder organized.

You can also find additional resources and tips through AVID's website.

AVID is designed to impact the leadership, systems, instruction and culture of a school to support high expectations and levels of achievement for all students. AVID impacts students throughout the school when trained teachers use AVID strategies to influence the academic and behavioral skills of their students in all content classes. Although AVID is an elective course for selected students, ALL students will benefit because the methodologies, strategies, and expectations are schoolwide and impact the learning environment and culture of an entire campus.