AVID and Education

I miss my kids. I love that Facebook helps me stay connected to some of them. Today Jorge, my former AVID student who is in high school, and Terri, a current AVID student, showed their individual determination (The I and the D in AVID) by posting pleas for other kids to join their cause and beg the district to reinstate AVID in our district. Katie, a graduating senior who is the quintessential AVID student, emailed her concerns about what's going on in my classroom in my absence. She and several other high school AVID kids come into my junior high AVID classroom and tutor on tutorial days. My sub is not an AVID trained teacher, in her defense, but one of the problems has always been that AVID in our district has been too dependent on the AVID teachers alone for its success.

AVID began in one English teacher's classroom in San Diego in the 80's and has spread internationally. It happened when students from the inner city schools were bussed to the mostly white Clairmont High School. Teachers requested transfers to other schools and the administration planned to put these kids into remedial and special ed classes because surely they couldn't be expected to learn, perform, and attend college like their white counterparts. This same dialogue about the achievement gap has been going on for decades. Mary Catherine Swanson found the answer when she created AVID, but after all these years, very few people are listening. AVID targets kids whose parents didn't go to college. It gives them a college going dream and culture at school when they aren't getting it at home. It gives them the rigorous curriculum and skills they need to succeed and go on to college. The results are astounding.

In the regular population, approximately 35% of kids attend a university. About 85% of the kids who stick with AVID attend. The first time I attended AVID training, It was the 20th anniversary and several of Mary Catherine's first AVID class came to speak. They were graphic artists, doctors, lawyers etc. A few years ago one of the speakers was from Arroyo Grande High School, where I started my teaching career. He is the child of immigrants who work in the fields. As an AVID student, he was accepted to Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, if I remember correctly. These stories are not unique and are repeated wherever there is an AVID program.

AVID does not benefit just the kids in the elective class. The idea is that the AVID philosophy, curriculum and strategies permeate the school and all of the kids benefit. The program is introduced to all kids in 4th grade, where they learn organization skills like keeping an organized binder. You's be surprised how many kids struggle simply because they lack organizational skills. The elective class begins in 6th or 7th grade and continues until they graduate. If they stick with it, they become highly motivated kids with big college dreams, amazing writing and public speaking skills, the ability to work well in a collaborative group, excellent note taking skills, high self esteem...you get the picture. This is exactly what the universities have been saying for decades that students can't do, and what the business world says they need. We have had this program that is exactly what is needed in the public schools, yet it is being scrapped because of the budget.

This is short sighted in the extreme. In bankrupting the education of our kids we are assuring economic disasters in the future. One of the reasons this country experienced an economic boom after World War II is because of men like my father, who came from a working class family but attended college and became a lawyer on the GI bill. In order to reclaim our spot as a superpower and ensure economic health, we need our kids to become as educated as possible. They say they use statistics regarding the test scores of African American boys in the 4th grade to predict the amount of prisons they will need in the future. How appalling is that? In California, the state with the largest college system and three of the best universities in the nation, we not only send a low number of them for further education we lose many of them because they drop out of high school. Charter schools like the Harlem Success Academy prove that kids of color can succeed and attend college. AVID proves this also.

So...why isn't every school in the nation an AVID school? Why are we building more and more prisons instead of funding our schools?

I realize this doesn't seem related to my cancer journey, but it really is. The first time I fought this battle was the year my school was supposed to be a National Demonstration AVID School. They chose not to do it without me, and the next year we had a different principal so we decided to wait. We missed our opportunity, and I can't help but feel if we had reached this goal it would have been harder to cancel the program. This year, there is one last AVID class, in my room at the junior high. Without me, I hear it has become a study hall where the kids just do their homework. There is an AVID club at the high school, which keeps the connection alive for the kids but does not fulfill the need.

If you are local, please contact the school board and speak out in support of this vital program. If you are not, contact your local representatives and President Obama and do the same. What we need to fix education in this country is to repeal No Child Left Behind, which is terrible legislation and any teacher will tell you it is ruining the education of this generation. Repeal NCLB, make every school in the nation an AVID school with 100& of the teachers AVID trained, and we'll see the achievement gap disappear. Oh yes - and fire any teacher who is resistant to change and still expects the kids to sit in rows and listen to the "expert" drone on.

This blog was inspired by my AVID kids, who show their individual determination every day and are fighting for this amazing program that they believe in. I love you all, and I am so proud of you for fighting for your future.

Namaste, Jill