The AVID Elective is first and foremost a college readiness course. Your student was nominated or selected because he/she is showing potential to not only enroll and succeed in rigorous courses but to be on track to attend any college. AVID is not a remedial course. Students in the AVID Elective enroll in rigorous courses and receive the support needed to succeed in those courses. Your student has been identified as someone who has potential and could benefit from the skills that will be taught and the peer community in the AVID Elective class. The educators at your student’s school believe your child can improve and succeed academically as they prepare for college and a career with the help of AVID.

AVID has resources available to help you support your child in the AVID Elective and with their schoolwork. Also, contact your child’s school for additional ways you can support AVID and get involved.

AVID is designed to impact the leadership, systems, instruction and culture of a school to support high expectations and levels of achievement for all students. AVID impacts students throughout the school when trained teachers use AVID strategies to influence the academic and behavioral skills of their students in all content classes. Although AVID is an elective course for selected students, ALL students will benefit because the methodologies, strategies, and expectations are schoolwide and impact the learning environment and culture of an entire campus.

While the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) describe “what” students should know, AVID strategies provide “how” students will learn and master the knowledge and skills needed to meet the standards. The expectations of AVID align with CCSS in many ways and are embedded within the curriculum to meet the rigorous expectations. For example, the higher-level thinking skills required by the CCSS (i.e., analyzing, comparing, inferring) are the exact skills that AVID has promoted and used to design its curriculum for the last 30 years.

AVID Center developed four Math and Science Summer Bridge Programs to strengthen AVID’s support for student achievement in math and science and to encourage student acceleration and interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. The AVID STEM Summer Bridge Programs offer rigorous math and science content incorporating WICOR strategies in engaging, collaborative lessons and activities. Additionally, AVID curriculum and strategies are applicable to all subject matter classes, with curriculum developed specifically to support learning in math and science courses.

As part of AVID’s English Learner College Readiness (ELCR), AVID Excel works to ensure middle school English language learner (ELL) students can succeed in high school college preparatory coursework. AVID Excel interrupts students’ routes to long-term ELL (L-TEL) status and accelerates their academic language acquisition while giving them the strategies and supports which are the hallmarks of the AVID College Readiness System.

AVID has resources and tips available to help you when preparing your child for college. Also, be sure to contact your child’s school for any particular deadlines, possible college visit opportunities and for ways you can help.

Students in the academic middle often move through our educational systems without any special recognition, positive or negative. While many of these students go on to graduate from high school, they are often not college-ready upon graduation. When a school has AVID, students in the AVID Elective and throughout the school are held to higher expectations and given the support they need to succeed and prepare for postsecondary opportunities. By pushing students into more rigorous coursework, encouraging, assisting, and advocating for them every day, AVID greatly increase their likelihood of making it to and through college.

When schools, colleges, and universities are ready to implement the AVID College Readiness System, AVID Center and district/campus leadership work together in a membership contract to suit the needs of the district/campus. Districts, schools, and colleges or universities can use federal and state funding, local funds, as well as private grants to help fund AVID at their site. To help, AVID Center has developed resources to assist school districts and institutions of higher education seek funding for their AVID implementation through grants, partnerships, and other sources. Students do not pay for AVID.