Woodbury’s Successful College-readiness Program, AVID, Expands

Yasmine Abdelal, a sophomore at East Ridge High School, has always been sure of one thing. “I’m really determined to go to college. My family immigrated [to Minnesota] from Egypt, and nobody had the chance to go. My family’s really supportive of me,” she says brightly. But preparing for college—taking the right classes and navigating the labyrinth of applications and scholarships—can be pretty overwhelming, especially for kids who are first-generation college students.
   
Since 2009, Woodbury students like Abdelal have been finding the support they need from District 833/South Washington County Schools’ much-lauded college readiness system: Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID). The program started at Park High School before launching at Woodbury High School during the 2010-11 school year. The system includes one elective class each trimester, led by an AVID elective teacher, which focuses on study strategies, organization and college prep. “Last year, we did a project and pretended that we were applying to colleges,” Abdelal remembers. “I didn’t think it was so much work! That’s how AVID has really helped me.”
   
Ask any AVID student or teacher, and you’ll get a similar response—they love the program. But what makes AVID so unique among college-prep systems? Instead of targeting low-performing or high-performing students, who often have a plentitude of other resources available to them, AVID is focused on the middle of the pack: students with a 2.0-3.5 GPA. “AVID is specifically targeted to the average student, the least served academic middle,” says Lisa Hyland, the AVID coordinator at Woodbury High School. “We’re looking for those kids who have the potential to graduate from a four-year college…If they’re not maximizing their potential, AVID is something that can help.”
   
East Ridge AVID teacher Mary Seidel echoes that. “AVID is about acceleration, not remediation,” she says. Students are required to have a three-ring binder and a planner to keep track of assignments, and they use a rigorous note-taking method— habits that are meant to be lifelong. “The strategies that are good for AVID classes are good for any classes,” says Seidel, who sees her students making huge academic strides over the course of the year.
   
But those tangible successes, in grades and college acceptance letters, aren’t Seidel’s favorite things about AVID. “It’s the relationships with the kids. You do become a family. One of the boys came in today and said, ‘Oh, I flunked my driver’s test!’” she says with a chuckle. “You go through things with each other, and watch each other grow and mature.”
   
With all of AVID’s success at the high school level, it’s natural that the district has been eager to expand it. This year, for the first time, the system is available at all South Washington County middle schools. “It’s going really well,” says Casey Tody, AVID coordinator and teacher at Lake Middle School. “The process is really similar [to the high school version],” she says, though the main focus is on study skills and organization, instead of direct college preparation.
   
“These kids have spent at least 12 years of their life being disorganized, maybe not getting the right support to be successful in school,” Tody says. “Our core focus is ‘WICOR:’ writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization and reading. We try to integrate all of those things into our daily lesson.”
   
And this year, even the youngest Woodbury students are getting in on the AVID fun. Most of the district’s elementary schools have implemented AVID strategies in their fourth and fifth grade classrooms, says district AVID elementary liaison Molly Lester. Kids start to learn AVID-based study skills, and teachers talk about their own high school and college experiences to get students thinking about their next steps in a fun way. “Minnesota schools are so strong, and our teachers are so strong,” Lester says. “The additional things that AVID brings, it’s so exciting.”
   
Yasmine Abdelal is excited about AVID’s expansion to middle and elementary schools, too. She encouraged her younger sister, a seventh grader, to apply for AVID. “She just started her first year, and it’s really helpful. She loves it.”

For more information on the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program, go to avid.org.