Thanks to a $74,000 grant from the Dell Foundation, the St. Louis Public School District is implementing a college-preparation program called AVID in eight schools beginning this fall.
Two high schools (Beaumont and Vashon) and six middle schools (Stowe, Turner, L’Ouverture, Langston, Webster and Mel Carnahan) have offered themselves as AVID outposts. Approximately 150 high-schoolers and a similar number of middle-schoolers will receive AVID training.
Under the Dell grant, each school will get a new curriculum library, and eight teachers from each school will be trained at a summer institute in Austin, Texas.
AVID stands for “Advancement Via Individual Determination.” The organization teaches good study habits, time-management skills, note-taking techniques and other disciplines necessary for success.
The New York Times reported that “what AVID shows is that high minority achievement can be more ordinary when schools not only insist on academic rigor but also offer personal support. AVID offers a blueprint for this scaffolding.”
The program was established 25 years ago and is now at nearly 2,000 schools across the United States.
To learn more about AVID, visit www.avidonline.org.
n Submitted by Friends of SLPS