<p>My son just started middle school and has been placed in their AVID program. Not all kids can participate in this program and students have to go through an interview process and get selected. My understanding is that the program helps "average" students" get on the college path early by pushing them to take above average classes and discuss their college plans (i.e. college visits are part of the program). An AVID class is an elective in their schedule where they get help/tutoring which in turn build self-confidence and success. </p>
<p>I've been very pleased with the program, especially their attention to organization & time management skills. It's unfortunate that they don't offer this program to all students.</p>
<p>I understand that they can be part of this AVID program all through high school. I was just wondering if any parents have their children in this program and what their experiences have been. Also, I'm curious as to how college admission officers feel about this program when they see it on a college application.</p>
<p>It is offered at our high school. My daughter is a junior and some of her friends are in the program. It is too early to know how the adcoms view it but I'm all for anything to helps kids to learn time management, to get help with homework, and to boost their self confidence. I would guess the adcoms would see it the same way.</p>
<p>One of my Ds is an AVID student. It has been great for her organizational and time mngmnt. skills. She is now enrolled in the max # of APs offered her Jr. year and is doing really well so far. </p>
<p>What a good AVID program can do for a kid is fantastic. Every AVID grad from our school attends college out of hs. For financial and family reasons some of them go to community colleges but the vast majority attend CSU and UC campuses. They are prepared and able to trasnition better than many of their non-avid counterparts.</p>
<p>According to the AVID site coordinator at our school and the student ambassadors who have lead some of the college info sessions the class has attended over the years, some adcoms do look favorably on AVID students because they know they have gone through rigorous coursework and that they have been taught time management and study skill compatable w/ college level work.</p>
<p>D participated in the AVID program throughout middle school. It did wonders for her self esteem, and taught her essential organizational and time management skills, skills which continue to stand her in good stead as a Physics major beginning her senior thesis at a top 25 LAC. She was never quite what you might call "average" in that she was always an A/B honor student prior to enrolling in AVID. However, because unbeknown to her dad and I, she had been experiencing considerable struggles with reading during her first years in grade school (K-3), problems of which we were not apprised before well into her third grade year, she had to do a bit of catching up. </p>
<p>It was then that her teacher finally recognized what was going on, and called us in for a conference. You could have knocked us over with a feather when she told us that our D was a full two academic years behind in reading. As it turns out, our D was one of many victims of our school system's ill advised (later abandoned) foray into "whole language" learning. She wasn't one of those kids who could "intuit" the rules of written language. Like many children, she needed to be taught the rudiments of phonics (duh!) in order to become an adept reader. Her teacher told us that, because D was such a quiet, docile student, who on the surface appeared to be doing just fine, it was at first easy to ignore her in favor of addressing the needs of her more academically and behaviorally "challenging" kids. She compared D to a little duck swimming in a pond: placid on the surface, paddling like mad underneath. How does a child make the A/B honor roll while lagging two years behind grade level in reading? I asked. She didn't seem to be able to explain it beyond citing what she observed to be D's trait of dogged determination. Years later, I can attest to the fact that she's always had plenty of that. Anyway, she received intensive remediation both at home, and with a reading expert at the school administration building's reading lab for the rest of that academic year and it worked wonders. By the time she started 6th grade, standardized testing revealed her to be reading at the 11th grade level. No exaggeration. It was all due to phonics and the love of a good book.</p>
<p>Well anyway , D didn't choose to continue AVID into high school. She felt that she had already obtained as much as the program had to offer, and her Dad and I agreed. Throughout high school, she was on the A honor roll, and taking as many AP courses as possible. She'd caught the science bug very early (4th grade), and jumped at the opportunity to attend the Governor's School for Physics, a calculus based class that met 2 hrs a day, five days a week for an entire year, and she ended up graduated in the top 2% of her high school class. By the time she began applying to college, AVID was a distant, albeit pleasant, memory. It was never mentioned in her college apps. But I highly recommend the program for motivated kids who could benefit from a little boost at a critical juncture.</p>
<p>We have AVID in the high school where I teach. The success of the program is very dependent on the commitment of the instructor and tutors. I guess that is always true, but especially so in AVID. </p>
<p>AVID requires that enrolled students take rigourous coursework, and in my school system where the AP teachers are under heavy pressure to increase our pass rates, there is the belief out there that the AVID students are pulling the pass rates down. However, that concern is not backed up by the data over the last several years.</p>
<p>As for how AVID is viewed by admissions officers, I agree that it will likely viewed positively or at the least, neutrally. The AVID philosophy is to catch kids who have the potential for success in college and make sure they get the necessary skills and preparation. I don't know the exact qualifications for AVID, but they include a minimum GPA and (in our school, anyway) standardized math and language test stanines in the 5-7 range. I believe that corresponds roughly to 60th-80th percentile, so above the national average but not the tip-top students who might potentially be headed to the most selective colleges and universities in the country.</p>
<p>Overall, my impressions of AVID are positive. It helps bridge the gap for targeted students who are willing to devote an elective period to the course and really buy in to the approach.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! I really appreciate your help and feel much better about my S being in the program. The organizational skills have been a huge help for him.</p>
<p>POETSHEART: Your description of your D sounds just like my S. He completely fell off the radar screen in elementary school because he was the quiet, average student in class but was struggling through reading. What kind of reading intervention did you use? At 6th grade, I still can't seem to get him to find the love of reading.</p>
<p>Ginger...my son is not a book lover either...7th grade. He has books he likes and there have even been a couple he picked up on his own accord but he pretty much wouldn't even consider picking up a book to asuage his boredom unless I suggested it. What works for him is SI for kids, books about athletes and the civil war. I tried doing all the right things from birth on...the same things I did w/ my girls...but for him there was never enough movement or action involved in reading. even as a toddler, he needed to "do something" and reading is just too sedintary for him.</p>
<p>I teach a reading comprehension class for 9th graders and SSR is a huge part of it. Boys walk in dreading SSR but by the third week of school, many of them look forward to it. I think it's partly because I have some really good books that a teacher could never get away with having in a middle school class and for the first time the books themselves have enough action to keep my boys interested.</p>
<p>What I'm trying to say is maybe it's kind of a boy thing. As your son gets older and you feel comfortable exposing him to reading that may be a little more action packed...read kind of racy...in theme and content, you may find that he discovers a love for reading that he never knew he had. The books that fly off my shelf include:</p>
<p>Life in Prison...Stanley Tookie Williams
Stuck in Neutral ....Terry Trueman (kid has cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder, dad thinks he's suffering and wants to euthanize him but kid is really a genius and no-one knows)
Fallen Angels...Walter Dean Myers a vietnam book
The Contender...Robert Lipsyte...small time criminal turns boxer</p>
<p>Don't loose heart. He very well may come to love reading once he can find something more compelling.</p>
<p>Ok I am a middle school student and I was just accepted into the AVID program. I now have to go to a math summer school for three weeks and I am a little nervous. </p>
<p>I am nervous to be in AVID because I once had a D in my intermediate math class, now I will be in an even more advanced math. So I am just wondering if any parents of students that are in the AVID program in middle school have any news on if it is as hard as many people say it is.</p>
<p>Also, I think this will be a good thing to be in AVID but I’m not sure yet because of my grades before. My parents did tell me if it gets too hard I can drop-out but I just don’t know. I have the summer school next week for the next three weeks so I will just have to see how it goes.</p>
<p>Please help me and tell me how hard it is! And everything you know about AVID
Thanks!</p>
<p>Ok I really need to know some more facts on the AVID program. In the fall, I be enrolled in the class. The people from the AVID class did not share as much information as I would like to know about the class. So please help me!
Thanks!</p>
<p>This is from our High School Catalog. AVID starts in junior high in our district. My son was a tutor in a 9th grade AVID class during his senior year.</p>
<p>AVID</p>
<p>Grades 9-10 Credits 5-40 Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation and interview AVID is a middle school through high school program to prepare students with potential for success in rigorous secondary curriculum for four-year college eligibility. AVID is an academic, regularly scheduled elective program based on writing as a tool of learning, inquiry method, and collaborative grouping. The three main components of the program are academic instruction, tutorial support, and motivational activities.</p>
<p>AVID 12 Senior Seminar
Grade 12 Prerequisite: Teacher recommendation and interview This course is designed for students who are underserved. Generally these students will be students in the middle whose parents did not attend college and/or students who have overcome adversity. AVID seeks to support students in rigorous courses. All students are working toward the goal of attending a university after high school. AVID requires students to prepare for the SAT and ACT, supports students in honors and AP courses, and prepares students for the demands for college by teaching and enforcing the use of Cornell notes and furthering their mastery of WICR (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Reading). UC approved Elective Credit only</p>
<p>My DS was in his High School’s AVID program from grades 9-12. The program is a definate “boost” for students in the academic “middle”- (“B” - “C” students who need that extra support in order to keep their grades competitive). It is NOT a program for everyone- students have to be serious about desiring to attend college, and thus (AVID students) are willing to put in the extra work to become more academically prepared than they might otherwise have been without the additional support/benefit of the AVID program. </p>
<p>I do not know if this website will allow me to post the National AVID site- it is: [adVid</a> | Streaming Live et VOD](<a href=“http://www.advid.org%5DadVid”>http://www.advid.org). If the national AVID website did not post for you, please google “AVID Decades of College Dreams.” You can learn more about the National AVID program, and what AVID regions are accomplishing throughout the country. </p>
<p>Be aware that the academic course load for grades 9-12, “may” become more challenging than you might have expected, but that’s because the program is designed to help AVID students to become as academically prepared for college as possible. TRY AND STAY IN THE PROGRAM through 12th grade. There are many regional AVID Scholarships that you can apply for in your Senior Year (scholarships specifically/exclusively for AVID students). In addition, (depending on your family’s income) as a 12th grade AVID student, you may elect to apply for (and have somewhat of an advantage in your application) for the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation Scholarship. Winners receive $5,000.00 per year for a total scholarship award of $20,000.00 in scholarship monies towards their undergraduate degree. Michael and Susan Dell Foundation Scholarship winners, also become a part of a collegiate network which helps college students throughout their collegiate years. (Not to mention, a free laptop, printer and other technical devises (including a camera) are provided for Scholarship winners). Here is their website: [Michael</a> and Susan Dell Foundation - Transforming the lives of children living in urban poverty through better health and education](<a href=“http://www.msdf.org%5DMichael”>http://www.msdf.org). (If this site does not allow the website to be provided, simply google “Michael and Susan Dell Foundation Scholarship.” </p>
<p>Lastly, High School AVID programs are lead by the same AVID Teacher you receive in your Freshman year of High School. ADVANTAGE: When it is time to request Teacher recommendations for your College applications, your AVID Teacher (who has worked with you for 4 years) can become a vital and extremely valuable Teacher recommendation for you when you are applying to colleges. *Few High School Students have the benefit of studying under the same Teacher for 4 years concurrently- in an ACADEMIC ELECTIVE PROGRAM which is designed to improve the student’s over-all academic success ! </p>
<p>Of course you can opt “out” of the AVID program, and you can work hard on your own throughout High School, and try and make certain your academic profile is as competitive as possible heading into your Senior Year. (A few students at my son’s High School dropped out of the program. Again, it is NOT for everyone).</p>
<p>Ok, I did say that I am enrolled in a three week summer school. I am very happy to say that it is going pretty good so far. It is all review, but I think I will be able to handle it. </p>
<p>But anyways, thank you for helping me learn more about AVID! I wlli do my best and I feel a lot better bout being in the program because all of the success stories I have heard so far. thanks</p>
<p>Check into your school’s actual AVID program. The description of AVID as mentioned in this thread doesn’t at all sound like the program at my D’s high school. There AVID is used for the English Language Learners and other’s struggling with school. </p>
<p>The only time I heard AVID students mentioned was by teachers in regular track classes (not AP or honors). There seems to be no correlation between those taking AP and advanced classes and those in AVID, and the AVID graduates tend to gravitate more toward community college than the school population as a whole. (Which may have been due to economic issues.)</p>
<p>i am a former student enrolled in avid and i honestly hate it . it puts so much presure on me . you have weekly binderchecks and tutorials on top of all your other homework . And some colleges dont even like avid students . all i can say is avid is hard and i really want to get out to pull my gpa up .</p>
<p>i have to agree . i am in avid now as a freshman in high school and i was
wondering if i should stay in it nxt yeat even though it brings me down
. my grade is a d+ right now nd i will be forced to do study halls even
though i dnt need it. do u have a suggestion as to weather or not i should
quit???. im desperate at the moment.</p>
thanks</p>