Leadership magazine Nov/Dec 2015 V45 No 2 | Page 35

Since its inception, AVID has reduced the achievement gap and sent millions of students to college who may not have had the opportunity. Additionally, 89 percent of AVID students remain in college after two years. Collectively, we contend that the skills and determination of AVID students are key factors in keeping them in college. AVID founder Mary Catherine Swanson believed in “holding students accountable to the highest standards, and providing academic and social support,” which in turn would allow the students to “rise to the challenge.” OUHSD has made this commitment by placing AVID programs at all of our comprehensive high schools. AVID began at three district schools. Oxnard High School, along with its staff, attained the distinction and recognition as an AVID Demonstration School. In the fall of 2014, OU HSD moved toward a schoolw ide AVID program by AVID Center, which has spread districtwide. For many years, the AVID program existed only within AVID elective classes to serve as tutorials for students in the program. An AVID-trained teacher led the tutorials, aided by college or senior student tutors trained in the AVID Tutorial System. The classes would break down into a differentiated model, where students worked on assignments from core classes such as math and English, allowing students to be tutored in challenging areas. By using this methodology, while mentoring the students academically and personally, students in AV ID are immersed in a “college-going culture.” The AVID model traditionally served st udents who lacked a col lege-going culture at home. Now AV ID can serve students in a schoolwide model. It is our district’s overarching goal to have AVID strategies immersed in every classroom at every grade level. Not all schools are able to make this leap, but Oxnard High School moved to a schoolwide model in the fall of 2014. The def inition of AV ID schoolwide varies from school to school. Schoolwide is def ined as a “strong AV ID program that transforms the leadership, structure, instruction and culture of a school, ensuring college readiness for all students.” According to Dennis Johnston, the director of research for AVID Center, the most vital schoolwide strategy initiative is the use of WICOR (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization and Reading). W ICOR has enabled OHS to incorporate “Critical Reading” throughout the school. This reading strategy increases reading levels and understanding for English learners and all students. OHS has a student population of more than 15 percent English learners, which makes this campaign essential to literacy and vocabulary acquisition. The third and final AVID schoolwide campaign added the “Essential Question,” which frames a unit of study as a problem to be solved that also connects and applies what students learn back to the real world. In addition, objectives are posted in each classroom daily, weekly, by lesson or by strand. Along with AVID EL, this strategy has propelled our English learner population toward academic success. AV ID CEO Sandy Husk , who has seen our program develop, stated: “The Oxnard Union High School District exemplif ies the process by which a school implements a schoolwide approach. By leveraging the four main areas of AVID, instruction, systems, leadership and culture, all of which are skillfully deployed at OUHSD, the benefit of having AVID strategies immersed in every classroom benefits all students and effectively closes the achievement gap.” A teacher’s perspective Research shows that the number of English learners will continue to grow. These students enter our classrooms with unique and diverse educational experiences from their native countries, and most have had little, if any, exposure to English. Specialized programs have been developed to overcome their educational shortcomings and advance their English development so they can be successful in school, including English as a Second Language (ESL). At OHS, these secondary students are recent arrivals to the U.S., and they usually do well by advancing to intermediate levels and even advanced levels, where they are in mainstream content classes. In recent years, there has been another fast-g row ing g roup of d istinct students entering the World Civilization class. Their oral skills are similar to native speaking students, but they have major def icits in their reading sk il ls, with some as low as second grade. They have pronounced diff iculties in their November | December 2015 35