| AVID |
Christy Barrett, Sponsor
(2008-2009)
The mission of AVID at Dobie Middle School is to ensure that
all students, especially those for whom college may seem
inaccessible, will…
succeed in advanced curriculum,
complete a rigorous college preparatory path,
enter mainstream activities of the school,
increase their enrollment in four-year colleges,
become educated and responsible participants and leaders in
a democratic society,
serve as role models to their peers,
and extend a positive influence beyond our doors into the
greater Austin community.
AVID, which stands for Advancement Via Individual
Determination is a college preparatory program that has been
on Dobie’s campus for seven years. It is offered as an elective
class that meets five times each week during school hours
with the purpose of supporting core-class curriculum.
Students receive two days of instruction in scholastic
readiness skills, two day in tutor-led study groups and one day
in motivational activities -- field trips, service projects, guest
speakers, academic survival skills, inductive thinking, and so
on.
In the AVID classroom, the program also provides students
with study skills, including time management, note-taking, and
online research. Cornell notes, weekly goal sheets, learning
logs and homework are kept in AVID binders. Time-
management calendars and assignment logs are kept in
school agendas. AVID tools help students organize their daily
routines. And, while all of that is amazingly helpful to Dobie’s
college-bound students, and by association, their peers, AVID
research says we can do more!
Our campus goals for AVID this year are three-fold: Expand
AVID methodology to all classrooms where writing, inquiry,
collaboration and reading occur; improve the organizational
skills of AVID students through AVID strategies; and, open the
door to the college experience.
While AVID has been on our campus at Dobie for eight years
and in the state of Texas since 1997, it has an even longer
history of helping students across the world.
In 1980, federal courts mandated segregation in San Diego,
California. Mary Catherine Swanson, head of the English
department at San Diego’s academically praised Clairemont
High School feared that new students would not have the same
advantages as those who had come from Clairemont’s feeder
schools. Her solution was to create the AVID program, an
elective class that is more like a philosophy. Swanson
determined that holding students accountable to the highest
standards, while providing academic and social support, would
allow these new student to rise to the challenge.
Today, this program that started with 32 students in one
classroom in San Diego, now served over 200,000 students in
over 2,700 middle schools and high schools in 47 states and
in the District of Columbia across 15 countries.
And, we are growing still.
The mission of AVID at Dobie Middle School is to ensure that
all students, especially those for whom college may seem
inaccessible, will…
succeed in advanced curriculum,
complete a rigorous college preparatory path,
enter mainstream activities of the school,
increase their enrollment in four-year colleges,
become educated and responsible participants and leaders in
a democratic society,
serve as role models to their peers,
and extend a positive influence beyond our doors into the
greater Austin community.
AVID, which stands for Advancement Via Individual
Determination is a college preparatory program that has been
on Dobie’s campus for seven years. It is offered as an elective
class that meets five times each week during school hours
with the purpose of supporting core-class curriculum.
Students receive two days of instruction in scholastic
readiness skills, two day in tutor-led study groups and one day
in motivational activities -- field trips, service projects, guest
speakers, academic survival skills, inductive thinking, and so
on.
In the AVID classroom, the program also provides students
with study skills, including time management, note-taking, and
online research. Cornell notes, weekly goal sheets, learning
logs and homework are kept in AVID binders. Time-
management calendars and assignment logs are kept in
school agendas. AVID tools help students organize their daily
routines. And, while all of that is amazingly helpful to Dobie’s
college-bound students, and by association, their peers, AVID
research says we can do more!
Our campus goals for AVID this year are three-fold: Expand
AVID methodology to all classrooms where writing, inquiry,
collaboration and reading occur; improve the organizational
skills of AVID students through AVID strategies; and, open the
door to the college experience.
While AVID has been on our campus at Dobie for eight years
and in the state of Texas since 1997, it has an even longer
history of helping students across the world.
In 1980, federal courts mandated segregation in San Diego,
California. Mary Catherine Swanson, head of the English
department at San Diego’s academically praised Clairemont
High School feared that new students would not have the same
advantages as those who had come from Clairemont’s feeder
schools. Her solution was to create the AVID program, an
elective class that is more like a philosophy. Swanson
determined that holding students accountable to the highest
standards, while providing academic and social support, would
allow these new student to rise to the challenge.
Today, this program that started with 32 students in one
classroom in San Diego, now served over 200,000 students in
over 2,700 middle schools and high schools in 47 states and
in the District of Columbia across 15 countries.
And, we are growing still.
Advancement Via Individual Determination
Last updated on February 25, 2009
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