#OurAVIDWhy
Source: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MRs43qguBF6ey-2n3C7f-q97V3vlZwft/view?usp=sharing
HISTORY
What started with just one dedicated teacher and 32 students is today the largest college-readiness system in the nation, impacting over 800,000 students annually in 44 states and 16 countries and territories. The first AVID class assembled in 1980—led by English teacher Mary Catherine Swanson—is a testament to the efficacy of teachers everywhere. Because AVID is a system of “good teaching,” its practices resonate with all students and teachers, creating impressive schoolwide results.
Beginnings/Origin
The impetus for the creation of Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) was federal court-ordered integration of the San Diego Unified School District after the courts ruled that 23 San Diego area schools were “racially isolated.” ‼️When the mandate took place, Swanson was the English Department Chair at Clairemont High School, which had a highly academic, upper-middle income, Anglo student body. In 1980, 500 low-income, ethnically diverse students were bused to the campus. Not wanting to deal with the “problems” that they foresaw with the incoming students, many students and teachers fled to a brand new high school, leaving Clairemont in upheaval. Teacher expectations were low for these new students. Many assumed that they lacked parental support, motivation, and study habits to qualify for college, and most assumed that they would need a watered-down curriculum to graduate. 😀. From that belief, and despite resistance and doubt from her colleagues, AVID was born.
In her 1977 master’s thesis, she outlined what she believed were the practices that would support student acceleration and would later become the foundation of AVID: “a non-traditional classroom setting meeting the academic and emotional needs ♥️of individual students; the teacher as advisor/counselor/student advocate; emphasis on objective data; students at the center of decision making regarding educational goals; student contracts outlining a willingness to work and setting learning goals; student support from
teachers and skilled, trained tutors; a rigorous curriculum emphasizing academic reading and writing; and reliance on the Socratic process.”
In the fall of 1980, Swanson recruited 32 low-income, diverse students in the academic middle and enrolled them in college preparatory courses and the first AVID Elective class. They agreed to work hard and enroll in the most rigorous curriculum that the school offered. The AVID Elective included development of study skills, a curriculum focused on reading and writing for learning, and tutoring in collaborative study groups. The AVID signature tutorial groups incorporated writing for learning, inquiry, collaborative learning, organizational skills, and academic reading—later dubbed WICOR. In a letter to the superintendent of schools, the original AVID students wrote, “We have almost every minority group represented within our program, and we all [have] become really close, because we are all striving for the same goal—academic excellence. This is the key to AVID; we are like a supportive family where there is concern for us both academically and as people. We are proud to be AVID students and wish that students everywhere could have a program such as ours.” In 1984, 30 of Swanson’s original AVID students graduated, with 28 enrolling in four-year universities and two in community colleges.
The AVID strategies were so successful that one teacher accused the original AVID students of cheating, assuming “those kids” were capable of only D’s and F’s. Angry, the teacher demanded that the students retake the test, and Swanson and her students readily acquiesced. To the teacher’s surprise, the students passed again with flying colors. She not only apologized to the students, but she went on to become one of the most vociferous champions of AVID at Clairemont High School, telling other teachers, “You can’t believe what these kids can do!”
Early Vision of Schoolwide and AVID Curriculum
Following the cheating accusation, Swanson realized that she needed to educate teachers about AVID, so they knew that it wasn’t an elaborate cheating scheme, but a sound educational strategy. This realization led to the formation of the first site team. She knew that once teachers saw the strategies in practice and heard the testimonies of the students, they would support it. With help from Swanson, students led the site team meetings, explaining to teachers what worked to help them learn and what was a hindrance.
Teachers began to share methods and lessons based on the site team discussions. Since teachers schoolwide used AVID strategies and curriculum with all of their students, in 1986, the San Diego Unified School District’s Testing and Evaluation Department found that Clairemont High’s schoolwide standardized test scores had improved 46% in language arts and 35% in mathematics—an increase higher than any of the other 16 high schools in the district. AVID was on its way to changing the face of education in America.
Growth
By 1996, AVID was in all regions of California, but it wasn’t until 1991—when AVID was thrust onto the national stage—that the program would expand beyond California’s borders. News of AVID’s success had traveled to the Charles A. Dana Foundation in New York, and in 1991, Swanson was awarded the $50,000 Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement in Education, making her the only public school teacher ever so recognized. The award received publicity in the New York Times, as well as many other publications, and states across the nation began clamoring for AVID in their schools. AVID soon spread throughout the nation and to the Department of Defense Dependents Schools overseas. This rapid growth led to the establishment of the associated nonprofit organization, AVID Center, in 1992.
Focus on Quality and Fidelity
As AVID expanded, Swanson realized the importance of maintaining program quality and fidelity to ensure that wherever AVID was in place, the teaching methods and outcomes were the same. The first way that she accomplished this was through professional development to ensure that all teachers were properly trained in AVID strategies and given the support that they needed. Site teams met to work on WICOR strategies specific to their curriculum. Today, AVID trains more than 28,000 educators each summer and countless more throughout the year, while continuing to provide world-class professional development opportunities to teachers across the nation.
The second way that Swanson assured fidelity to the AVID model was through the development of a Certification process. Ten “Essentials” for implementing the program were in the study (an 11th, active site teams, was added later). The two most important points of data were increasing the percentage of all students enrolling in college preparatory curriculum and increasing the number of students enrolling in college. In both categories, schools involved in AVID increased their success by more than 100%. At present, the Certification process continues to provide schools with an annual opportunity to assess the effectiveness of their AVID program. It allows AVID schools to achieve student results, measure those results, and institutionalize successful methodologies throughout the school community.
Today, through decades of quality professional development and fidelity of implementation, AVID has grown into the largest, most comprehensive college readiness system used by schools to improve the academic preparation and performance of all students, especially those who are underrepresented in higher education institutions. What began in one high school classroom now spans elementary through higher education and impacts nearly one million students all over the globe. AVID is not just another program; at its heart, AVID is a philosophy. Hold students accountable to the highest standards, provide academic and social support, and they will rise to the challenge.
Focus on All Students
At the core of AVID’s mission is the belief that all students can successfully achieve when they are held to high expectations and properly supported. Woven throughout AVID’s curriculum and philosophy are the Culturally Relevant Teaching (CRT) practices that help educators build authentic relationships, hold high expectations, empower student voices, encourage self-advocacy, respect experiences, and build on assets. Together, these practices help foster a learning environment that is safe and empowers students to grow intellectually. In addition, all of AVID’s curriculum incorporates a wide variety of English Language Learner (ELL) strategies to purposefully support English language acquisition and promote the utilization of academic language in order to develop literacy and ensure college readiness.
AVID SCHOOLWIDE
What began decades ago with one teacher in one classroom preparing students for the rigors of postsecondary education quickly outgrew the confines of just one class. The successes of that teacher drove the expansion of the AVID Elective into a model of systemic reform that empowers schools to prepare more college-ready students on their campuses.
How It Works
AVID Schoolwide works through transforming four key domains of operations: Instruction, Systems, Leadership, and Culture. By focusing on these domains, AVID’s philosophy and methodologies become deeply ingrained, and the benefits of AVID are widely experienced.
Instruction
It is instruction that incorporates the cornerstones of AVID’s foundational tools—Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading. When teachers participate in professional learning opportunities, implement WICOR strategies in their classrooms, and commit to success, they produce a learning environment where all students are equipped to tackle complex issues, problems, and texts.
Systems
AVID Schoolwide works to implement or reform systems that open access to the most rigorous courses in order to support college readiness beyond the AVID Elective. Data collection and analysis, opportunities for teachers to learn and refine their instructional practice, master schedule development, and student and parent outreach are examples of systems touched by AVID Schoolwide.
Leadership
Leadership sets the vision and tone that promotes college readiness and high expectations for all students in the school. The principal and a calibrated leadership team—including representatives from the AVID site team—work together to ensure that the school’s mission and vision statements align with AVID’s philosophy of open and equal access to rigorous courses and that resources are allocated to promote college readiness and high expectations for all students.
Culture
It is evident that AVID Schoolwide transforms a school when the AVID philosophy progressively shifts beliefs and behaviors, resulting in an increase of students meeting college-readiness requirements. A site builds this intentional culture by engaging parents, students, and teachers; focusing on community support; and establishing a mindset that all students can benefit from rigorous and challenging coursework.
Outcomes
When implemented with intentionality and fidelity, the AVID Schoolwide approach results in a number of favorable outcomes. Short-term outcomes include an increase in: the number of students completing rigorous courses, student attendance, and the educational aspirations of students. Long-term outcomes include an increase in: high school graduation rates, the completion of college entrance requirements, the number of seniors applying to college, the number of students enrolling in college, and the number of rigorous courses. AVID Schoolwide provides a high-quality, equitable education for all.
WICOR
Throughout the decades since AVID’s founding, through a continual cycle of improvement, the curriculum framework has been expanded and enhanced to ensure success for all students. One of the products of these decades of research is AVID’s foundational strategies for helping students succeed: writing to learn, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading to learn—WICOR. Based on what we know through brain research, learning has to be organized in such a way that students can build on existing schema to create new neural pathways. Pathways are only built if the brain has an opportunity to “wrestle” with new information—to figure out how the new fits with the old. This “wrestling” is best accomplished when we ask students to work actively with new information—they have to think, talk, write, read, and ask questions. When students are passive recipients of information, there is very little cognitive wrestling and critical thinking, and therefore, very little long-term learning—new pathways are unlikely to be formed. The AVID Center curriculum and learning team continues to review, improve, and refine the WICOR framework to support educators in reaching all students.
W: Writing to Learn
As an English teacher, Swanson firmly believed that writing was essential to help students process and retain their learning and that if students couldn’t explain something in writing, they didn’t know it well enough. Today, AVID is still a proponent of “writing to learn,” which allows students the opportunity to use writing—be it Cornell notes, learning logs, or quickwrites—to make sense of information.
I: Inquiry
The process of inquiry is also at the heart of the AVID class. Inquiry is “the question” that moves the learner to action, whether that be an explicit question or implicit questions that drive the process of working through ideas to a solution. Students uncover their understanding by asking critical questions. The goal is for students to analyze and synthesize materials or ideas to clarify their own thinking, probe others’ thinking and work through ambiguity. The key is for teachers to establish an environment where it is safe for students to engage in authentic inquiry—where wondering, questioning, and hypothesizing are fostered, and students recognize how to push each other’s thinking to higher levels.
C: Collaboration
Collaboration was central to AVID from the beginning, when Swanson replaced all of the rows of desks with wide cafeteria tables to allow students to work in groups. Collaboration in AVID is about developing positive interdependence, working with others toward a common goal or goals, and tapping into the social, mammalian side of the brain in efforts to increase motivation and attention to rigor.
O: Organization
The very first AVID students were required to carry binders to keep their class work organized. Today, the AVID binder is one of the cornerstones of the AVID class. However, organization is not just about the ability to organize and manage “stuff”; it is also the ability to organize and manage learning and self. Teachers can teach organizational skills by helping students find systems for recording homework and organizing their materials in a binder, in their backpack, and online. AVID’s primary focus, however, is teaching the more implicit organizational skills that help students see how their brains work, how they make sense of and organize information, how they apply specific strategies and monitor their outcomes, and how they take control of their learning.
R: Reading to Learn
To develop the necessary college-readiness skills, students have to practice close and critical reading. The goal is to help students read for meaning, versus reading for identification, and to strategically gain meaning, understanding, and knowledge from print and other media.
THOUGHT LEADERS
Although AVID was developed through the teaching experiences of founder Mary Catherine Swanson, an early and ongoing research base for AVID testifies to the excellence of its practices.
Early Influences
An early influence for Swanson was William Glasser. In Control Theory in the Classroom, Glasser (1986) advocated for learning teams that allow students to work together to achieve a goal, rather than working in isolation. According to Glasser, learning groups satisfy the four basic psychological needs for students: belonging, power, freedom, and fun. Learning groups are successful because students know that they are no longer alone in their struggles, and they often perform better for their peers than for their teachers. Glasser’s work supported the collaborative work that was, and still is, the heart of the AVID classroom.
Another early influence was Dr. Philip Uri Treisman, a mathematics professor at University of California, Berkeley. Swanson met Treisman in 1986 and learned that he, too, experimented with collaborative study groups. Treisman was struck by the high rate at which African American students failed his Calculus classes and the high rate at which Chinese students excelled at the same coursework, so he set out to determine why. What Treisman (1986) discovered was that while Chinese students worked collaboratively—studying together and critiquing each other’s work—the African American students worked in isolation for fear of being thought of as unintelligent. They also maintained a sharp distinction between their academic and social lives. As a solution, Treisman developed a pilot math workshop, through which students worked in collaborative groups where they struggled with difficult Calculus problems. His results paralleled Swanson’s: When students work together to clarify understandings, they conquer coursework. Treisman became a founding board member of AVID Center in 1992.
As AVID grew, it continued to evolve its practices based on research.
Growth Thought Leaders
Learning to think and thinking to learn are both key concepts in the AVID classroom. Arguably the biggest influencer of the inquiry method at AVID is Dr. Arthur Costa, professor of education emeritus at California State University, Sacramento. Costa’s Levels of Thinking range from lower order thinking skills (Level 1: gathering information) to higher order thinking skills (Level 2: processing information and Level 3: applying information). According to Costa (2001), “Meaning making is not a spectator sport. It is an engagement of the mind that transforms the mind. Knowledge is a constructive process rather than a finding” (p. 12). To better understand the content being presented in their core subject areas, it is essential for students to learn to think critically and to ask higher levels of questions. By asking higher levels of questions, students deepen their knowledge and create connections to the material being presented. Higher level questions are at the heart of the tutorial because they prompt inquiry—a process that enables students to become independent thinkers who master their own learning. With the help of Costa’s Levels of Thinking, AVID is able to develop students who are fluent in the thinking process—students who know not just what to think, but how to think.
In What Works in Classroom Instruction, Marzano, Gaddy, and Dean (2000) offered nine categories of effective instructional strategies that produce “the highest probability of enhancing student achievement for all students in all subject areas at all grade levels” (p. 10):
• Identifying similarities and differences
• Summarizing and note-taking
• Reinforcing effort and providing recognition
• Homework and practice
• Nonlinguistic representations
• Cooperative learning
• Setting goals and providing feedback
• Generating and testing hypotheses
• Activating prior knowledge
These best teaching practices are embedded and incorporated throughout the curriculum and across the AVID System.
Current Thought Leaders
Today, AVID is highly influenced by the work of Carol Dweck, one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation and professor of psychology at Stanford University. Her research focuses on why people succeed and how to foster success. In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Dweck (2006) posited that we look at the world with either a “growth mindset” or a “fixed mindset.” The former is characterized by the belief that talents and abilities are fixed, and no amount of work can change them. The latter is characterized by the belief that talents and abilities can be developed through hard work and education. She argues that students can, and should, be taught that effort can lead to positive changes and success; students will rise to the challenge if they know that success is not the province of the naturally gifted, but is available to all through hard work and individual determination. Dweck’s work supports AVID’s central philosophy that all students—no matter their backgrounds—have not only the right, but the ability to succeed.
AVID began with a strong research base and continues today to strengthen and validate its practices with research-based strategies and theories from today’s best and brightest minds in the arena of education and brain research.
For a more complete list of AVID’s Thought Leaders, visit http://www.avid.org/ research.ashx.