Advancement Via Individual Determination (A.V.I.D.)
The Mission School District would like to announce a fabulous educational partnership development with the Ministry of Education and the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation. Only 20 schools throughout the Province of British Columbia have been selected to be part of this research pilot project aimed at improving student achievement.
We feel very privileged that Hatzic and Mission Secondary Schools have been selected to be part of this new opportunity research project, with additional Canadian funding. The trademarked "Advancement Via Individual Determination" (AVID) provides an elective class for underachieving students who will receive support through a rigorous curriculum and ongoing, structured tutorials. The emphasis will be to move more students into challenging coursework leading to college acceptance.
The AVID program essentials for successful implementation will focus on a program combining advanced courses, with an elective class focusing on writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, study and test-taking skills. In order to assess the impact of AVID on students, a cohort (a similar age group of students that will stay together) of grade 9 students (Sept 2005) will be assigned and monitored for 4 years through graduation (June 2009). In the United States 30,000 students have graduated from AVID programs with a 95% enrollment rate in post-secondary institutions, while another 89% have enrolled for at least two years.
The AVID program was first conceived from the notion that students "academically in the middle" could be motivated to pursue post-secondary education if they had the right support from their teachers, their school, their parents and their peers. This becomes a community investment because our local UCFV students will participate in the role of trained supportive tutors in the high school classrooms.
The Mission School Board is encouraged about the newly developed partnership with the Ministry of Education and the potential the AVID program will have on the entire school district. We look forward to working with the students, parents, and community, along with the support of our educators, to implement this proven successful initiative. The AVID B.C. site is located at www.avidbc.com