Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID)

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Freshman AVID students go over classwork for their classes. Photo Credit: Selena Oropeza

he AVID program is a national program implemented in over 8,000 schools and has over 2 million students nationwide. AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. AVID can be considered a college preparatory class or a class to help students prepare for the future. 

“The official goal of AVID is to close the achievement gap for all students, focusing on college and career, and their future,” explained Mrs. Renner-Singer, CHS Social Studies and AVID teacher.

“The official goal of AVID is to close the achievement gap for all students, focusing on college and career, and their future,” explained Mrs. Renner-Singer, CHS Social Studies and AVID teacher.  “The AVID elective specifically helps students who might be first generation, students of color, students who have financial need or in other ways, students who learn English as a second language who might need some extra support and helping them get to their goal- their own personal goal of going to some sort of post-secondary training; Either a two-year University or 4-year University,” explained Mrs. Renner-singer.  

 There is an AVID class for each grade level, and each AVID class has around 20-30 students. The AVID elective for seniors and sophomores is an A-Day elective while the AVID elective for Freshmen and Juniors is a B-Day. There are two AVID teachers at CHS who are very excited and passionate about being an AVID instructor: Mr. Davies is the freshmen/sophomore AVID instructor; Mrs. Renner-singer is the Juniors/Senior AVID instructor. Mrs. Renner-Singer has been an AVID instructor for thirteen years and Mr. Davies has been one for almost two years.  

“You know, after teaching math for like some 30 odd years, I really wanted to do something different, and I love the AVID strategy,” said Mr. Davies who continued, “I love how it promotes kids. So I thought give it a try and I’ve had a lot of fun; so it was a new challenge for me.”  

“Once I became an AVID teacher, it was such a great fit for me because my role is more expanded than it is for a traditional social studies teacher like before I was in AVID, I didn’t really know my students very well like I do with AVID. I really get to know you guys and I really connect with you guys in a way that's way different than I did before,” explained Renner-Singer. 

Senior AVID students Angela Gunter and Julian Valdez help each other with a problem for their Calculus class on the whiteboard, while their other classmates watch and try to help them understand. Photo credit: Emily Sanchez

AVID often focusses on success in other core classes, but it does have some work that students need to do. The work for AVID consists of workdays, framework days, tutorials, and occasionally activities for bringing the class closer together.  

“A group gets together, and they work with you to figure out what you don’t understand and that's very beneficial,” said Karla Cacho (11) to explain what tutorials are and what students do. While tutorials may sound unhelpful, the students and teachers can both agree that tutorials do help.  

“We have tutorials that help us in things that are hard and make us look for help. Senior tutorials are less strict, and we are able to choose our own group,” explained Alejandro Romero (12).  

“With tutorials I never have questions and it’s really helpful,” explained Adilene Castaneda-Rodriguez (10). 

Each AVID class focuses on different aspects of life and what comes after high school.  Each class is at a different stage in high school, and AVID considers that. “We just start with opening up our calendars and kind of planning our week or just the day. Sometimes we do tutorials and then we do whatever activity Mr. Davies has planned for us for the day,” explained Xareny Guzman (9).  

Freshmen AVID can be less work and not as hard but the intensity increases as students progress to the next grade levels. Sophomore AVID does start to transition to give you more work and starts pushing you to be the best student you could be. “We have lots of tutorials, I feel like we have fun most of the time. Whenever we have our workdays it's fun and we just do our homework and hang out with our friends,” explained Adilene (10).  

Junior year is when AVID students are encouraged to take more challenging course work and focus on classes that will benefit them the most in their futures.  

AVID students begin to transition for their senior year and towards the end of the second semester of their junior year: they begin making a college list and a scholarship list to prepare for their final year of high school. “We just do tutorials, people help each other out with classes; it's really focused on trying to keep your grades up and helping you with any questions you have with your schedule and what's best for you to have and what are the best classes for you to take,” explained Karla (11).  

Senior year in AVID is when students are expected to hit the ground running. They begin applying to colleges, scholarships, and getting ready for FAFSA. Senior year is when students must take all the skills they learned from past AVID classes and apply them to their applications for colleges and scholarships or to get a job right out of high school. “Senior year in AVID is super focused on college and scholarship applications completion so it's really really practical. It's a lot of ‘This is how you read a financial aid package, this is how you ask for a letter of recommendation, and these are what your options are. It’s super hands on and practical and even second semester is that because second semester senior year we start talking about your transition into college and you will actually read a book that is all about okay you are going to go to college. You're going to leave your family or maybe you're not. Maybe you're going to WVC and stay home but those are some of the things you have to think about,” explained Renner-Singer.  

AVID benefits all students who join. Even if a student joins AVID and leaves later, the student will be able to take the skills they practiced and learned and apply them to their classes and in the future for jobs or college applications.