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New Skyview Middle School AVID Class Gets Kids Thinking About College

Advancement Via Individual Determination targets students who are middle-of-the-road academically and prepares them for rigorous coursework.

seventh-graders Justin Denwiddie, Jason Lee and Olivia Raiter said before this school year, they never really considered going to college after high school.

“I just thought about finishing high school and getting on with life,” Lee said.

But that changed, they said, once they became a part of a college readiness program established at Skyview for the first time this year called Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID.

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“We drill it from day one, you’re going to college,” Bohren said. “We just talk about it and talk about it.”

Many of the students have never seen a college campus, Bohren said, so the class takes field trips to schools like the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas.

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The AVID program targets students who are in the middle-of-the-road academically, earning B’s and C’s, Bohren said. Typically they are the first in their families to attend college and from low-income or minority families, but these aren’t program requirements, he said.

In addition to presenting the idea of college to the students, it focuses on the skills they need to be successful in higher-level classes, such as note taking, reading comprehension, writing and learning through inquiry.

Raiter said the extra help with class work and note taking lessons have already helped her in her classes.

“I can always depend on my Cornell notes,” she said.

Bohren said the students in his class have plenty of intelligence and potential to earn high grades and succeed in rigorous classes, they just need to know how to get organized, take notes and study.

“They have the potential to do a lot better,” he said.

The program started this year with 56 students applying for 25 slots in the seventh-grade class, Bohren said. Next year there will be seventh- and eighth-grade AVID classes, he said, and the following year Tartan High School principal John Bezek said he expects to continue the program into ninth grade.

Students stay in the program from year-to-year as long as they keep their grades up, Bohren said.

In high school, AVID students will be expected to take the most rigorous courses, Bohren said.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the class breaks into three groups for tutorials, or sessions where the students, one-at-a-time, pose questions like “If someone dropped from outer space, would they be able to get back to Earth?” Then other students ask questions that, when answered, will help reach the answer to the original question.

Three tutors, who are either college graduates or current students, lead the sessions.

Tutor Peter Setter said he thinks the students get a lot out of the inquiry sessions.
“The ability to learn through questioning will carry them through college and in the work force,” he said.

In 2010, 91 percent of the seniors nationwide in AVID who responded to a survey said they planned to attend college, according to the program website.

The AVID program has been around for 30 years, said High Potential and AVID coordinator Kathryn Marget, and she's been advocating for bringing the program to Skyview since she started there in 2003, but finding the funds to pay for the program was always the challenge.

Much of the funding for the AVID program comes from the district's Office of Educational Equity, Marget said. After the equity office implemented the Young Scholars program in the elementary schools, AVID in the middle school became the logical next step, Marget said.

"The ultimate goal of both programs is to develop talent through increased opportunities and to decrease the achievement gap," she said.

Beyond the additional teacher support, Marget said Bohren tries to stress to the class members that they’re a family because they help each other, support each other and they create similar goals.

“From that perspective,” Marget said. “I think the kids feel like they’re part of something really special.”

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