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AVID Untracking Program
The AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program, developed in San Diego City Schools, is a successful high school untracking program that has been used in other public school systems. In San Diego, AVID students from low-income and underrepresented ethnic backgrounds (for example, African American and Latino students) have exceeded the overall local and national averages for college enrollment (Mehan, Villanueva, Hubbard & Lintz, 1996).
Instruction
From an educational point of view, AVID is a daily class that involves writing to learn, inquiry and collaboration. In one writing-to-learn technique AVID students are taught a method of note taking in which they write questions in response to notes they take in academic classes. Inquiry involves tutors (volunteers from local colleges) working with small groups of AVID students to help them clarify their ideas based on their notes and questions. Collaboration involves having AVID students work together rather than alone to achieve instructional goals.
School Culture
Despite the benefits of the instructional program itself, Mehan, Villanueva, Hubbard and Lintz (1996) attributed much of its success to a changed school culture that provides additional academic support, teacher advocacy, and connection to networks that link high schools and colleges. Support includes explicit socialization in study strategies outlined above and also includes information related to getting into college, encouragement to approach teachers for help, and strategies for negotiating with teachers. AVID teachers closely monitor students' work and intervene when they are not succeeding; they also advocate for AVID students within the school. To help AVID students learn about college, teachers arrange field trips to colleges and help with the college application and financial aid processes.
Peer groups
Peer group influences are also an important aspect of AVID's success (Mehan, Villanueva, Hubbard and Lintz, 1996; see also Mehan, Hubbard, & Villanueva, 1994). Rather than developing oppositional identities, African American and Latino AVID students internalize the program's message about the importance of going to college for success in life and develop strategies for dealing with the discrimination they acknowledge and experience. "They affirm their cultural identities but at the same time recognize the need to develop certain cultural practices that are acceptable to the mainstream, notably achieving academically" (Mehan, Villanueva, Hubbard and Lintz, 1996, p. 145). Several institutional arrangements contributed to these outcomes--AVID separates promising students in daily special classes, gives them public markers of group identity, and fosters the development of academically oriented peer groups (Mehan, Villanueva, Hubbard and Lintz, 1996).
Parental support
The
final component that seems to contribute to AVID's success is parental
support. Mehan, Villanueva, Hubbard
and Lintz (1996) reported that parents of AVID students had high aspirations
for their students and developed many strategies to support their children
(although these strategies were often invisible to school personnel).
Relevant CIP Cultural Questions
