Building Academic Excellence with AVID

Building Academic Excellence: Our Three-Year AVID Professional Learning Journey

At our school, AVID is not a program—it’s how learning happens. Across all grade levels, content areas, and classrooms, we intentionally use AVID strategies to strengthen student thinking, engagement, and ownership of learning. That commitment is a major reason we are proud to be recognized as a Site of Distinction by AVID.

Over the past three years, our staff has engaged in a focused, schoolwide AVID Professional Learning (PL) plan designed to deepen instructional practice and, most importantly, improve outcomes for students. Each year built intentionally on the last, creating a coherent and sustainable instructional framework.

Year 1 (SY23-24): Elevating Student Discourse

Focus: Inquiry, Collaboration, and Student Voice

Our journey began with a schoolwide emphasis on student discourse—moving classrooms from teacher-centered to student-driven learning environments. Through AVID strategies rooted in Inquiry and Collaboration, teachers across all subjects embedded structured academic discussions, purposeful questioning, and opportunities for students to explain their thinking.

Why this mattered for students:

• Students became more confident speakers and listeners
• Academic conversations increased rigor and depth of understanding
• Classrooms shifted toward shared ownership of learning

This foundation ensured that students were not just completing tasks, but actively thinking, reasoning, and communicating—skills essential for college, career, and life readiness.

Year 2 (SY24-25): Strengthening Readable Writing Across the School

Focus: Writing as a Thinking Tool

With strong discourse structures in place, Year 2 focused on readable writing across all content areas. Teachers implemented AVID Writing strategies to help students organize ideas, clarify thinking, and communicate learning clearly—whether in math, science, humanities, or electives.

Rather than isolating writing to English classes, we treated it as a universal learning strategy.

Why this mattered for students:

• Writing became a tool for learning, not just assessment
• Students improved clarity, organization, and academic language
• Teachers gained consistent strategies to support thinking through writing

This year strengthened coherence across classrooms and empowered students to demonstrate understanding in meaningful ways.

Year 3 (SY25-26): Deepening Learning Through Formative Assessment

Focus: Using AVID Strategies to Inform Instruction

In our third year, we are sharpening our focus on formative assessment—using AVID strategies to continuously monitor learning and respond to student needs in real time. Through Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading (WICOR), student discourse, and MTSS Tiered instruction/differentiation, teachers are gathering evidence of learning during instruction, not just at the end.

Formative assessment through AVID looks like:

• Strategic questioning to check for understanding
• Collaborative learning structures that reveal student thinking
• Writing-to-learn activities that guide instructional adjustments

Why this matters for students:

• Instruction becomes more responsive and personalized
• Feedback is timely, actionable, and meaningful
• Students better understand their own learning and next steps

This focus ensures learning is dynamic, supportive, and targeted—helping every student grow.

This year, our AVID teacher, Dr. Wiedemer, and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support Chair, Ms. Barrett, created a year-long Monopoly Continuous Improvement game for staff. The 'game board' highlights WICOR and Discourse AVID strategies, along with MTSS and differentiation strategies for teachers to use as Formative Assessment in the classroom. Teachers were challenged to 'complete the board!' with incentives based on participation.

AVID Across All Classrooms, All Students

What makes our AVID implementation powerful is that it is schoolwide. AVID strategies are used:

• Across all grade levels
• In all content areas and courses
• By teachers committed to continuous instructional growth

This collective effort is a defining strength of our school and a key reason we earned AVID Site of Distinction certification. The designation reflects not only fidelity to AVID practices, but also the intentional leadership, collaboration, and reflection that sustain them.

Looking Ahead

Our three-year AVID Professional Learning plan reflects a clear belief:
When teachers grow together, students thrive.

We are proud of the work our educators and students have accomplished—and even more excited about what lies ahead as we continue to refine, reflect, and innovate through AVID.