School District Pilots College Prep Program for Seventh Graders

Editor's Note: This is the first installment in a series of three articles that will explore college prep programming in District 199. Future articles will look at college prep education being implemented at the high school level.

is halfway through the first year of AVID, a pilot program designed to begin preparing students for college as early as seventh grade.

For 14-year-old Emy Dominguez, an eighth-grader enrolled in AVID, the program could be the first step toward realizing her dream of becoming a pediatrician.

“They push us to success,” said Dominguez.

AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. The program consists of a specific track of coursework designed to prepare students in the academic middle for post-secondary education.

“It’s all about college readiness,” said Dan Lemke, who teaches the AVID courses at IGHMS.

Students study topics such as test taking, note taking, critical reading, time management, self-investigation, learning interests and learning style. The classes are structured to create a student-centered environment. Common teaching methods include group work and discussion.

“It’s very collaborative,” said Lemke.

AVID also offers an extra learning option called AVID club, where students have the opportunity to receive homework help after school up to four days per week.

Currently, 80 IGHMS seventh- and eighth-grade students are enrolled AVID. IGHMS offers two seventh-grade sections and two eighth-grade sections of the program.

Students interested in enrolling in AVID must apply. The program’s application process is collaborative and includes short-answer questions, teacher recommendations and an evaluation of each student’s grades and standardized test scores to confirm that they fall within the academic middle.

“It has the potential to really help those students,” said Dr. Deirdre Wells, superintendent of Independent School District 199.

AVID is a national program that was brought to the attention of ISD 199 about a year ago by the East Metro Integration District, a collective of 10 metro area school districts of which ISD 199 is part. EMID also includes such districts as St. Paul, Roseville and Forest Lake.

Several districts in the collective—St. Paul, Roseville, West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan, South Washington County and White Bear Lake—already have implemented AVID to some degree.

Inver Grove Heights' AVID program is paid for a combination of EMID integration dollars and money from the ISD 199 general fund.

Next year, the district wants to offer AVID to ninth-grade students at Simley High School. There also has been discussion of eventually offering AVID courses to 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders as well.

Dominguez plans to continue with the program when she begins high school in September.

“It’s going to help us a lot in college,” said Dominguez. “I want to follow my dream.”