Dr. Betty Krohn, AVID Texas Program Manager
Ben Solomon, AVID Texas Program Manager

Think about students with whom you have been associated that you consider to be
“in the middle.”
What is it about these students that puts them “in the middle?”

 B, C, and D Students
 Falling short of their potential
 Capable of completing rigorous curriculum
 First in family to attend college
 Historically underrepresented in four-year colleges and universities
 Economically disadvantaged
Students in the academic middle

Raising Achievement and Closing
Gaps
4

Underlying Everything Is the Cycle of
Low Expectations
Poor Test
Results
Low
Expectations
Low Level
Assignments/
Instruction
Less
Challenging
Courses
5

100
National Graduation Rates by Race, Ethnicity,
80
60
40
20
77 75
50
53 51 56
0
Asian/PI White Black Hispanic Native American/Alaskan Disability
Race and ethnic graduation rates based on the Urban Institute’s Cumulative Promotion Index.
Disability graduation rate is from National Council on Disability, 24 th Annual Report to Congress.
Realize the Dream, National Report Card on Education and Equal Opportunity, accessed 10/3/2005: http://realizethedream.civilrights.org/scorecards/national.cfm

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
93
65
White
33
87
50
18
African
American
63
32
11
Hispanic
Graduate from high school
Complete at least some college
Obtain at least a bachelor's degree
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. March Current
Population Surveys, 1971-2001, In The Condition of Education, 2002.

Young people from High
Income families
Young people from Low
Income families
75%
9%
Tom Mortenson, Postsecondary Educational Opportunity.

 Nearly 75% of high school graduates enter colleges,
• but only 12% of these students have completed a significant college-prep curriculum.*
 Consequences:
• High percentages of students requiring remediation
• Low bachelor’s degree completion rates
Kati Haycock, Closing the Achievement Gap, Educational
Leadership, 2007.

Students Who Require
Remediation Are Less Likely to
Earn a Degree
Earned BA
No Remedial Courses
One Remedial Course
Three Remedial Courses
54%
45%
18%
More than Two
Semesters of Reading
9%
Cliff Adelman, Cliff in Crosstalk. Vol. 6 No.3, Summer
1998.

Challenging Curriculum Results in Lower
Failure Rates, Even for Lowest Achievers
Ninth-grade English performance, by high/low level course, and eighth-grade reading achievement quartiles
SREB, “Middle Grades to High School: Mending a Weak
Link”. Unpublished Draft, 2002.

In the end, we have to make different choices.
Achievement and opportunity gaps come from choices that educators and policymakers make.
Choices about:
 How much to spend on whom
 What to expect of different schools and students
 Who teaches whom
 How to organize classrooms and schools

Change Sought...
To develop an equitable
College-Going Culture in secondary schools…
“College by design, not by chance”

To help all students do rigorous work and meet or exceed high standards in each content area, we must help students:
 Develop as readers and writers.
 Develop deep content knowledge.
 Know content specific strategies for reading, writing, thinking and talking.
 Develop habits, skills, and behaviors to use knowledge and skills.

Academic Preparation
Transcript Study:
“the single biggest predictor of college success is the quality and intensity of students’ high school curriculum”
Cliff Adelman, Answers in the Tool Box , U.S.
Department of Education, 1999.

What is Academic Rigor?
Rigor is the goal of helping students develop the capacity to understand content that is complex, ambiguous, provocative, and
personally or emotionally challenging.
Taking rigorous courses opens doors!
Teaching What Matters Most; Standards and Strategies for Raising
Student Achievement by Strong, Silver and Perini, ASCD, 2001.

What Rigor Looks Like for ALL
Students…
 qualitatively different academic environments
 no predetermined limits
 development of deep understanding
 consistent engagement in sophisticated investigations
 building inquiry-based learning communities

 building upon interests, strengths and personal goals
 teachers and students as risk-takers
 creation of life-long learners and thinkers
 encouragement of independent investigation
 acceptance of responsibility

Academically wellprepared students are likely to graduate from college regardless of their social background.
Unprepared students of all backgrounds are not likely to do so.
Adelman, 1999 American Educator, 2004

Students who take AP courses and exams are much more likely than their peers to complete a bachelor’s degree in four years or less.
Camara, Wayne (2003). College Persistence, Graduation, and
Remediation . College Board Research Notes (RN-19). New York,
NY: College Board.

Chrys Dougherty, Lynn Mellor, and Shuling Jian, The Relationship
Between Advanced Placement and College Graduation (National
Center for Educational Accountability, 2005)

[L. avidus]:

Superman – Gifted & Talented
 Superman is naturally Gifted & Talented.
 He does not need any special help or toys and gadgets to be successful.
 He just flies and is blessed with powers naturally.
Batman – AVID Students
Batman is just as capable as Superman, but he needs:
 Alfred the Butler (AVID Teacher),
 Special toys and gadgets (AVID Classroom and WICR), and
 Robin (AVID tutors and peers)

 Classroom curriculum
 Academic instruction
 Instructional tools
 Tutorial support
 Student connections
 Professional development

 WICR
 Writing to learn
 Inquiry
 Collaboration
 Reading to learn
 Study Skills


Cornell Note Taking

Planners/Time Management

Binders/Organizational Skills
 AVID Curriculum Library

 Collaborative Tutorial

Socratic method
 Costa’s levels of questioning

1 college tutor for every 7 students

Colleges and
Universities AVID
Support
Staff
Community
Parents
AVID
Coordinator
(AVID Elective
Teacher)
Student
Student
Administration
Tutors
Subject
Area
Teachers
Counselors
Collaborative Support for the Success of Students

 Teacher/adult advocate
 Supportive peer groups
 Community service activities
 Extracurricular activities and leadership opportunities
 Motivational activities
 Career and college exploration

 Summer Institute
 District Director training
 Content area PATH trainings
 Tutor training
 Regional workshops

 Involvement in a systemic and curricular approach
 Initial in-depth staff development and ongoing support in regions and districts
 Focus on results
 Accountability
 Site team work
 Increased leadership

AVID and
Classroom Instruction That Works
Effective Instruction by
Meta-Analysis
 examines average effect of 1251 experimental studies
 focuses on instructional strategies with high probability of success for all pupils, K-12, in all subjects
 expresses results as effect size
(An effect size of 1 = 34 percentile point gain)
Classroom Instruction That Works (2001, ASCD) , Marzano,
Pickering, & Pollock, page 4-7.

Categories of Instructional Strategies That
Affect Student Achievement
 Identifying similarities and differences
 Summarizing and note-taking
 Reinforcing effort & providing recognition
 Homework and practice
45%*
34%
29%
28%
 Nonlinguistic representations
 Cooperative learning
 Setting objectives & providing feedback
27%
27%
23%
 Generating and testing hypotheses 23%
 Questions, cues, & advance organizers 22%
*Increase in achievement (percentile) of the experimental group compared to the control group
Classroom Instruction That Works (2001, ASCD) , Marzano,
Pickering, & Pollock, page 7.

 Accelerates under-achieving students into more rigorous courses

Teaches academic skills not targeted in other classes

Provides intensive support with in-class tutors and a strong student/teacher relationship

Creates a positive peer group for students
 Develops a sense of hope for personal achievement gained through hard work and determination

In AVID students are challenged with rigorous curriculum, but they are also taught:
 Leadership Skills
 Study Skills
 Organizational Skills
 Goal Setting
 Student Success Skills
 Social Skills

 Middle school/high school articulation
 Accountability
 Comprehensive professional development
 A district-wide focus on results

How AVID Supports School Wide
Change
Builds Partnerships:
• Collaboration with College Board
• Partners in state and federal grants
• Partners with community organizations
• Partners with parents
• Partners with counseling programs
• Collaboration with college outreach programs

Creates a College Going Culture:
• Site team focused on a college-going culture
• College field trips and research projects
• College tutors as role models
• College going data to guide district plan
• Guest speakers
• Increased AP and Pre-AP participation, especially for minority students
• Implements research based, best instructional practices for all students in the school

AVID

 San Antonio ISD implemented AVID in1997.
 In 2008/2009, AVID is in 105 school districts and 2 charter programs, serving approximately 600 campuses.

The Texas AVID program is the second largest in the nation.
 AVID is a state approved, innovative elective course with
PEIMS numbers for AVID I – IV.
 AVID Professional Development trainings have been approved to receive continuing professional development credit by the Texas State Board of Educator Certification.

 AVID seniors had a 97.7% graduation rate.

AVID seniors boasted an SAT and/or ACT taking rate of 86.2%.
 91.8% of AVID graduates completed four-year college entrance requirements.

77.5% of seniors who applied to 4-year college and were accepted. (n = 1680)
Data gathered in 200809 about AVID’s 2009 seniors. n = 1680

High Schools
Implementing AVID
2008-09 246 Sites
Middle Schools
Implementing AVID
2008-09 280 Sites

High Schools
Implementing AVID
2008-09
23,547 Students
Middle Schools
Implementing AVID
2008-09
18,937 Students

AVID in Texas (2007-08) with AVID 2008-09
2008-09 AVID 21%
State of Texas Demographics
62% 14% 61.5%
AVID Student Demographics

TAKS Performance (% Passing) with Demographic
Comparisons: State of Texas vs. AVID in 2007-2008
7th Grade 8th Grade 9th Grade 10th Grade 11th Grade
State of TX
White
Hispanic
African
American
Eco Dis
88 80 93 95 79 91 87 64 66 89 65 89 80 91 81 95
94 90 96 98 89 96 96 80 79 94 81 95 89 96 91 98
83 75 90 92 73 87 81 54 57 85 53 85 73 87 73 93
83 69 91 92 67 87 82 48 50 85 48 82 67 87 69 93
82 72 89 91 71 86 81 52 55 84 51 83 70 85 70 92
AVID in TX 93 86 96 97 89 95 92 72 74 94 72 95 85 95 84 96

TAKS Performance (% Passing) with Demographic
Comparisons: State of Texas vs. AVID in 2007-2008
7th Grade 8th Grade 9th Grade 10th Grade 11th Grade
State of TX
White
Hispanic
African
American
Eco Dis
88 80 93 95 79 91 87 64 66 89 65 89 80 91 81 95
94 90 96 98 89 96 96 80 79 94 81 95 89 96 91 98
83 75 90 92 73 87 81 54 57 85 53 85 73 87 73 93
83 69 91 92 67 87 82 48 50 85 48 82 67 87 69 93
82 72 89 91 71 86 81 52 55 84 51 83 70 85 70 92
AVID in TX 93 86 96 97 89 95 92 72 74 94 72 95 85 95 84 96

Percent of Graduates in 2006-2007
2006-2007
State of
Texas
2006-2007
AVID in
Texas

In August of
2007,
Northside ISD, in San Antonio, implemented
AVID at the middle school level.

In just one year,
Northside AVID students have shown tremendous gains in the number of students scoring
“Commended” on the TAKS
Reading Test.

99% plan to enroll in a college or university
69% plan to enroll in a four-year university
30% plan to enroll in a two-year college
59% of parents had no college level experience
AVID Center Data Collection System, 2006-2007
Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole percent

Section 39.114 High School Allotment states that districts and campuses must use funds to:
 Implement college readiness programs to prepare underachieving students for college
 Implement programs that encourage students toward advanced academic opportunities, such as dual credit and AP
 Implement programs that give students opportunities to take academically rigorous course work, including four years of math and science
Using High School Allotment Funds

Section 39.114 High School Allotment states that districts and campuses must use funds to:
 Implement programs that align the curriculum for grades 6 through 12 with postsecondary curriculum
 Implement other high school completion and success initiatives in grades 6 through 12 as approved by the commissioner
AVID meets ALL HB1 requirements
Using High School Allotment Funds

One-time Costs:
 AVID Library
 District Director training (over a 2-year period)
Ongoing Costs:
 College tutors
 AVID membership fees
 Summer Institute registration and travel
 Continuing professional development
See projected AVID program cost handout

Regional trainings and meetings:
 Tutor Trainings
 Coordinator/Elective Teacher Meetings and Professional Development
 Administrator/Counselor Meetings and Professional Development
 District Director Meetings
Yearly Curriculum Updates
State District Director Meetings
Regional PATH Trainings
AVID Support

Watt, Yanez, & Cossio (2003): AVID: A Comprehensive School Reform
Model for Texas. National Forum Journal
Watt, Powell & Mendiola (2004): Implications of One Comprehensive
School Reform Model for Secondary School Students
Underrepresented in Higher Education. JESPAR.
Watt, Powell, Memdiola & Cossio (2006): School-wide Impact and AVID:
How Have Selected Texa High Schools Addressed the New
Accountability Measure? JESPAR.
Watt, Huerta & Cossio, 2004. Leadership and Comprehensive School
Reform: Implementation of AVID in Four South Texas Border
Schools. The Catalyst.
All reports are available on the Texas AVID Website at: http://avid.panam.edu

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Culture and Commitment, Margaret Mead, 1996

Contact Information:
Eileen Friou
Patrick Briggs
Dr. Betty Krohn
Ben Solomon
State Director efriou@avidcenter.org
Assistant State Director pbriggs@avidcenter.org
Program Manager bkrohn@avidcenter.org
Program Manager bsolomon@avidcenter.org
AVID Texas State Office Phone: 972-591-2550