Supporting the Urban Effort: The National Center for Urban School Transformation

By Rob Gira, Executive Vice President, AVID Center

I wanted to get to the heart of what makes urban schools successful, so I sought out to interview one of the top thought leaders on urban schools, Dr. Joe Johnson of the National Center for Urban School Transformation.  With the annual NCUST conference coming May 22, and a new book from Johnson, along with Lynne G. Perez and Cynthia L. Uline, Teaching Practices from America’s Best Urban Schools, I took the opportunity to catch up with Johnson and ask him some questions about the Center and its work with urban schools.

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Starting with Why

By Gordon Mosher III

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

~Simon Sinek

Always start with the “why.”  Most of us are used to the question, “What do you do?” But what if we were asked, “Why do you do what you do?”  When we start with the “why,” we can then better understand “how” we should proceed and “what” needs to be done.  There is an excellent Ted Talk by Simon Sinek, a leadership expert and author of Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. He spoke during a TEDx conference in Puget Sound, Washington.  I encourage you to watch the video!

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AVID Center’s Urban Success Imperative

By Rob Gira, Executive Vice President, AVID Center

In a previous blog, I described our AVID Center board retreat, where we determined three imperatives we will focus on for the next few years.  These are:  1) Reaching more students directly and supporting their college readiness with technology; 2) Accelerating our schoolwide college readiness efforts; and 3) Working more effectively with urban districts.

In this post, I am going to detail some of our plans for more effective urban strategies and will also discuss some of the thought leaders who are influencing our work.

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Confronting Stereotypes in the Classroom: Part 2

By Kayla Burrow, Communications Specialist, AVID Center

Stereotype threat is real; it is here.  In our previous blog, we showed how it affects performance.  Now, we will look at ways you can reduce the threat.  The impact of our identities varies depending on the contexts we are in, so we must do what we can to change those contexts.  In Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do, Steele outlines many solid, simple ways of reducing stereotype threat in academic settings, and many of them can be found in our best AVID strategies.   Along with great instruction from teachers, the following steps can be taken to reduce stereotype threat and the achievement gap: 

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Confronting Stereotypes in the Classroom: Part 1

By Kayla Burrow, Communications Specialist, AVID Center

AVID’s mission is to close the achievement gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society.

There are many causes behind the achievement gap, also known as the opportunity gap or expectations gap, that exists in our education system today, but what can educators actually do to close the gap, and is there anything that we are missing? What else could we be doing to ensure that all of our students are college and career ready?

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