With tennis, baseball, student government, wilderness club, and an academic schedule packed with advanced placement (AP) and honors classes, it’s a wonder my eldest son has time to breathe much less concentrate on preparing for college. But he does. Some kids have the gift, I guess, and thrive on perpetual motion. I was definitely not one of those kids. After a day at school, the last thing I wanted to do was suit up for sports practice. Instead, I rushed to get on the bus and unwind.
For students who need more than four hours of sleep to do it all, there is AVID, Advancement via Individual Determination. AVID was started thirty years ago to help students “in the academic middle,” those with grades in the B, C, and D range. It started as a service for secondary school students but has since expanded to assist students as early as fourth grade improve their eligibility for four-year colleges. According to the program’s literature, AVID targets students who desire to go to college and are willing to work hard. Using a technique they call “acceleration instead of remediation,” AVID places students in the most rigorous classes their schools offer instead of letting them float through unchallenging courses. Although not always the case, AVID is often an elective class that gives these students an entire hour each day to work with a teacher on their challenging class assignments and university preparation.
The curriculum is about more than just tutoring though. It teaches study skills as well as the skills that surveyed college professors highlighted as lacking in many entering college freshmen: essay writing, note-taking, and deductive reasoning. The AVID method, abbreviated as WICR, covers writing, inquiry, collaboration, and reading. The writing aspect emphasizes communication skills in all disciplines, not just English. It encourages the students to clarify their thoughts and deliver them in a straightforward manner. The inquiry leg encourages the students to analyze the lessons, which are not merely lectures. Instead, the students work in groups (collaboration) to learn skills such as discussion leadership, debate, and cooperation. Reading, for AVID students, is about analysis as well as comprehension.
During my first year in college, I worked as an AVID tutor (I’d always liked tooting but eventually became avid about it). As a representative of the college experience, I guided the high school students through their college applications and entrance exams while answering questions about what university life was really like. I can’t say for sure, but the AVID literature told me I was a role model. I can say, though, that I answered a lot of questions about college that the students wanted a more peer-like answer to than the teacher could give (e.g., Is college difficult? How much homework do you do each night? What is it like to live in a dormitory?).
The program seems to work. According to the program’s Number Crunching Web site, “AVID students are more likely to take AP classes, complete their college eligibility requirements, and get into four-year colleges than students who don’t take AVID. Almost all AVID students who participate for at least three years are accepted to college, with roughly three quarters getting into four-year universities.” With the stress of college preparation as intense as it is, AVID provides an important and valuable aid to students who need it. And what student couldn’t use an extra hour of every day to prepare for college?