Program Aims to Create AVID Learners

Fifty-two students in Aberdeen and 26 in Havre de Grace will be granted the opportunity to expand their academic horizons through an advancement program at the middle school level.

AVID—which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination—will challenge students, with the goal of introducing mid-level learners to advanced placement classes.

Helen Miller, the instructional facilitator for both schools, will be at Tuesday evening’s Havre de Grace City Council meeting to present the plans for the program.

“It’s all about accelerating in the academic middle. Here at both schools, it's seventh grade,” Miller said. “We’re starting it in seventh grade, but we’re going to expand next year to include six through eight, and possibly high school.”

According to AVID.org, the program “serves all students” but “it focuses on the least served students in the academic middle.”

It does so by raising expectations. For more on the program’s goals, click here.

According to the program website, more than 85,500 students in the AVID program since 1990 have graduated from high school with the intent to attend college.

“It targets students in the academic middle that have the academic potential but may not have ever thought about taking advanced classes,” Miller said.

She said 78 students between Havre de Grace and Aberdeen have been chosen for the program, but teachers will implement the program’s teachings to all students.

Teachers were trained on the basics of the program this summer.

One aspect of the program implements college students and recent graduates as tutors in an attempt to further drive home the goal of educational advancement.

“[The AVID students] are going to ask, ‘How’s college? Tell me about college,’” Miller said. "That develops that role model, 'I went to college, you can do it too' attitude.”