9781422275412

FORMATION OF AVID, 1980

In 1980, Mary Catherine Swanson was a teacher in an underserved area of San Diego. She noticed that many of her fellow teachers had low expectations for their students, and students tended to meet these expectations but reach no higher. Students were not living up to their full potential, and she wanted to make a change. Mrs. Swanson believed that if students were given higher expectations, they would rise to meet them. Thus she created AVID: Advancement Via Individual Determination. The AVID system encourages teachers to teach students through higher- level thinking questions as opposed to simply asking them to memorize facts and dates. It also asserts that teachers should create a classroom culture that assumes children are going to college and provide students with academic, social, and emotional support that will help them succeed in education and life. Today, AVID programs are active in more than 6,400 schools around the United States, affecting nearly 2 million students. The AVID program

pushes pupils to do their best, and teachers learn how to help students reach their dreams, even when they come from neighborhoods and schools where they are not given the same advantages as their peers from higher- income neighborhoods.

The AVID system encourages children to live up to their full potential regardless of the neighborhood they live in.

12 HELPING CHILDREN