Just as a bodybuilder only builds muscle when lifting weights, a reader only builds ability to understand complex texts when reading complex material.  One of our AVID Staff Developers from Australia, Dr. William DeJean, demonstrated this idea during a recent AVID training in San Diego for Summer Institute Staff Developers.  “Learning to read challenging text is similar to undergoing physical therapy.  Initially, such therapy is often painful and exhausting, and it’s tempting to cheat on the exercises a bit” (Shanahan, Fisher, & Frey, 2012, p. 62).  In order to increase our students’ abilities to comprehend college-level reading material, we must expose them to rigorous text early.  By doing so, we can develop a set of skills for students to apply whenever they are challenged by a text.

By Rob Gira, Executive Vice President, AVID Center

What does it take to create a path for all students to colleges and universities, especially low-income and minority students? While AVID acknowledges the importance of a student’s individual determination, Dr. Roberta Espinoza emphasizes the significance of mentoring, advocacy, and the timely intervention by key adults. In her new book, Pivotal Moments (Harvard Education Press), based on several years of research, Espinoza examines the importance of teachers, counselors, and administrators being “in the right place at the right time” to support students with advice and inspiration on their journeys into and through postsecondary education.

After returning home from a rather normal day, my son came up to me and said, “Mom, I went on RateMyTeachers.com. There were a few negative comments and a few positive ones about you. One comment in particular stood out to me. It stated, ‘Mrs. Chavira is evil and makes you work so hard, but I hate that I love her. I got into college thanks to her.’”

Immediately, I knew who wrote it – a former AVID student named Alex!

Poor teachers say this: “Hey I’ve constructed this course and curriculum for you and I can’t wait to do it to you.” – Alphie Kohn

Let’s recap my last few blogs: Howard Gardner makes the case that the new 21^st century goal is teaching students to not only be great academics but also respectful and ethical minds. Hallowell illustrated the importance of making connections with and between students and teachers. Alphie Kohn, the well known “constructivist” researcher and speaker, mirrors many of Gardner’s and Hallowell’s ideas. In Kohn’s article “Progressive Education: Why It’s Hard to Beat, But Also Hard to Find,” he shares eight key elements of “Progressive Education” (What Sir Ken Robinson calls the “agricultural model”). For the purposes of this short blog, we will focus on just five of these elements:

Governor Jerry Brown and those who have proposed that AVID be cut from the state’s budget should reconsider.

Why?

The most recent example comes with the announcement from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Last week, the MSD Foundation announced their selection of 300 students from applicants nationwide who will become Dell Scholars, giving each student $20,000 for their college or university tuition, room and board.*

My name is Ekong Ekong, and my journey in AVID was one of the inspirations for the video “People Like Me.” From the time I started school through 7^th grade, I wasn’t worried at all about classroom assignments, homework, or projects. As a matter of fact, I was convinced those things would be absorbed into my brain without me giving much effort (How? I don’t know). My focus was geared toward my reputation and maintaining status. In other words, school took the backseat while my social life rode shotgun (which was apparent in my grades). I wasn’t terribly bad, but definitely nothing a mother could be totally proud of. Even my teachers (who I assumed knew very little about me) saw that my effort did not match my potential. So my football coach, along with my other teachers, recommended me for AVID without my knowledge. I was not too ecstatic about it, but the moment my mom caught a glimpse of what AVID was about, it did not matter…I was in!

We want to call your attention to the following blog by Oscar Sweeten-Lopez entitled “Pricing the college dream.”  Oscar is with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and as the Dell Scholar’s Program leader, oversees the foundation’s comprehensive college persistence services to improve the four-year college graduation rates of high-risk, low-income students.

Since 2004, the MSDF has awarded more than 2,000 scholarships ($20,000 plus technology and mentoring support) with 1,315 awarded to AVID students, and as the Program leader, Oscar offers valuable insights about the financial aspect of attending college or a university.

In the winter of 2010, AVID Executive Director Jim Nelson wrote in relation to rigor: “rigor is a method to be applied rather than a set of specific coursework materials; it is how students learn, not just what they learn, that is emphasized.”

At Greeley West High School in Colorado, the AVID Site Team has always applied that mentality; students take the most rigorous coursework for their individual pursuit of success. West is a minority-majority high school with a diverse population that includes over 15 languages and high rates of poverty. This change has occurred rapidly during the four years of my tenure as principal. West HS is also Weld County School District 6’s accredited magnet school for the International Baccalaureate^® (IB) program. Having both extremes within the school presented the AVID Site Team with quite a “middle” from which to pick its students.   

AVID Center recently held an all-staff retreat.  We invited Precious Jackson-Hubbard to address the staff and reflect on her experiences as an AVID alumna, teacher, and now coordinator.  Though originally meant for staff, her words ring true for all who work with students in or outside of the classroom.