AVID’s Site Certification and Schoolwide Recognition Levels

by Michele Marcus, Ph.D., National Director of Program Quality, AVID Center

Michele Marcus and Dennis Johnston having fun at a Florida CSS rollout session

AVID Vice President Dr. Dennis Johnston and I have been visiting AVID District Directors around the country to inform them about the changes to the upcoming 2013-2014 “AVID Certification Report and Self-Study Continuum” (CSS) and the new levels of recognition for AVID sites. This is important work as we want our AVID schools to be the best, and we want to recognize them for their success with students schoolwide.

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My AVID Story

by Corey Hardiman, AVID Alumnus

I grew up on the far Southside of Chicago in the community of Roseland.  Because of the violence and tragedy that plague Roseland, it is not desirable for raising a family.  It is no safe haven, and day-to-day living can be a struggle.  It is a community where violence has taken over and young people are often killed.  However, every dark tunnel has a light at the end of it. I am proud to say that AVID was one of the programs that allowed me to see and reach for that light at the end of my tunnel. 

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College, Career, and Citizenship Readiness With AVID and AP: Boise School District

By Rob Gira, Executive Vice President, AVID Center

I’m always looking for districts that have a coherent approach to providing rigorous opportunities for all students and a plan for supporting those opportunities. Some districts leave this effort to the discretion of the sites, and even to individual teachers. That is not the case in Boise, Idaho, where I found a superintendent, Dr. Don Coberly, and area director, Dr. Stacie Curry (she also oversees AVID), making sure that the district leverages AVID’s support with the wealth of opportunities provided through AP® courses. I also found a district with a strategic plan that explicitly calls out both AP and AVID in support of their key imperatives. The district’s vision, as stated in their plan, is “to graduate each student prepared for college, career, and citizenship.” 

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Journeys – A Transformative WICOR Project

By Jeanie Greenidge, AVID Teacher and Coordinator, O'Banion Middle School

The following is an edited version of Jeanie’s recent Access article.  It contains some additional resources.

In my middle school AVID classroom at O’Banion, I wanted to empower our AVID students and substantiate their personal transformations by having them participate in Journeys, a six-week WICOR unit created by me, which chronicled their individual transformations – or journeys.  While deeply personal for each individual student, it was my hope that the safe and caring environment of the AVID classroom would facilitate easy sharing and mutual acknowledgement. 

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Invisible Curriculum

By Bill Madigan, Vice Principal, King Chavez High School

One night after dinner at a nice restaurant in San Diego, I found a dead homeless man in the parking lot near my car.  At first I was unsure of his condition.  He just looked so still, and I just had a gut feeling he was not alive.  Next to his head was an empty large bottle of cheap vodka.  I called 911, and in a moment, sirens, police cars and an ambulance were screaming in my direction.  After a frantic attempt to revive him, one of the paramedics declared him dead.  An officer who searched his pockets had found some prescription medicine, and he read aloud the man’s name: David.  David looked like he was no more than 30 years old.

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