Thread: Scheduling AVID

We've found with the AVID program at our school that it is NOT beneficial for the group to be kept together for their classes. Our AVID elective teacher did that with her first group and the result was stigmatization. The staff claimed the it wasn't a "real" pre-AP course because it was all AVID kids who weren't "real" AP kids.

After that first year, the AVID kids were not separated from the rest of the group and we all agree that it is best that way to maintain the level of rigor needed to truly prepare them for college (as is the goal).

I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but it is food for thought.

Now that another month has gone by since my original post, I have come to my own conclusion that the AVID elective students should be grouped together in English 1P with some in Accelerated. It is not necessary to group them in other content areas. The reason it is beneficial to keep them grouped for Freshmen English is that it provides a wonderful opportunity to reinforce Cornell note-taking, binder organization, WICR strategies, and the like. So much of the AVID curriculum is Language-Arts based, and it is a good idea to have them in a learning environment for English that supports what they are learning in the AVID Elective class. Clearly, this is not necessary for grades 10-12; however, 9th grade is foundational to their success.

Since my last post, the counseling department has made adjustments to these students' schedules allowing them to participate together in my English 1 class. During the first two months of school, in terms of Cornell note-taking, they were discouraged or not supported at all in their other classes. In regards to the level of rigor present for these students, it is only now that they are experiencing rigorous college-prep Language Arts curriculum. The reason that I feel my class is more rigorous is because I am weaving in AVID curriculum, and so much of AVID curriculum focuses on critical thinking and inquiry-based learning. As I noted in my post, my last year's AVID English 1P students outperformed the other English 1P classes. Similarly, these students are demonstrating that high level of performance even at this early date.

I have no interest in debating the point. I merely wanted to respond again since we have implemented the design. It could be that these positive results occur when people believe that they will.

Our AVID group is only together during their AVID elective and "seminar" (our version of homeroom). At our summer conference, it was discouraged to keep the AVID students together during regular classes due to the reasons already mentioned. Maybe for the Cornell notes and WICR strategies, some professional development for the other staff members would be useful? We do "Best Practice of the Month" for each subject area and use that as a professional development tool to keep our staff members involved with Cornell notes, Costa's levels, binders, quickwrites, etc.

Good luck!

It is an interesting problem. We have similar issues with our English Learners. We only really have to group them for Language Arts, but for the last two years we've also had them grouped for math, which in turn pretty much lumps them together for science and social studies. At first we were excited and felt like it would help us meet the needs of the kids at different language levels. That may be true to a point but it has added behavior issues (together with their friends all day long) and stigmitization.

I admire the AVID program- I believe it works as well as the students' efforts.

Still, I find my AVID students concentrating more on their AVID notes than the lesson I am teaching- repeating material, not able to erase the board, assignment written in the AVID binder instead of the required notebook for class.

Speaking with the AVID mentor, I have been told to be more considerate. I told her that her students need to pick up the pace, focus on my class when they are in class, and follow directions.

Probably not the best way to go, but a few of the students are showing improvement.