Our AVID Story
Our AVID Story
Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) strategies focus on helping all students prepare for and succeed in four-year college programs, two-year college programs, the military and career pursuits by promoting critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, character and physical well-being.
New Bern High School had a planning year during the 2013-2014 school year. The planning year was crucial to give our faculty time to prepare for implementation, and we highly recommend any school considering implementing the AVID program to have a planning year. We were able to select the faculty who would teach the AVID Elective course and its paired course, train those faculty members at AVID Summer Institute, and conduct the application and interview process in February for the 8th Graders who would be in the AVID program for the following school year.
The biggest impact for a school implementing the AVID program is on the master schedule. Our school has a four-by-four block schedule with 90 minute classes. Each teacher has three classes in the Fall semester and three classes in the Spring semester. The AVID Elective is paired with another class and those classes run year-long. We split each cohort into two groups, called A and B. Group A meets with the AVID Elective teacher and Group B meets with the paired class’ teacher two days each week: ABAB or BABA for four days each week, and one day per week they meet with each teacher for 45 minutes, so each teacher gets the students for 2 ½ days per week. Because the teacher teaching the AVID Elective is teaching that class year long, they lose two sections of whatever subject they teach. We spread out that load between our different departments to lessen the impact on each department. We currently have one English, one Social Studies and two Science teachers teaching the AVID Elective classes.
We have tried pairing the AVID Elective with several different subjects over the years. Our pairings have been as follows:
2014-2015
AVID I & Honors English I
2015-2016
AVID I & Honors English I
AVID II & Honors Biology
2016-2017
AVID I (2 sections) & Honors English I (2 sections)
AVID II & Honors Biology
AVID III & Honors English III
2017-2018
AVID I & World History
AVID II (2 sections) & Honors English II (2 sections)
AVID III & AP World History
AVID IV -- semester long class (allows students to take Honors English IV, AP English Literature or dual enrollment English at community college)
2018-2019
AVID I (2 sections) & World History (2 sections)
AVID II & Honors English II
AVID III & dual enrollment at community college
AVID IV -- semester long class (allows students to take Honors English IV, AP English Literature or dual enrollment English at community college)
2019-2020
AVID I & Honors English I
AVID II (2 sections) & Honors English II (2 sections)
AVID III & Honors English III
AVID IV -- semester long class (allows students to take Honors English IV, AP English Literature or dual enrollment English at community college)
2020-2024
AVID I & Honors English I
AVID II & Honors English II
AVID III & Honors English III
AVID IV -- semester long class (allows students to take Honors English IV, AP English Literature or dual enrollment English at community college)
Some years, we have accepted more than 60 students into the 9th Grade cohort, and that had an enormous impact on the departments the AVID Elective teachers are in because they have to teach two year-long sections of the AVID Elective.
We have learned over the years that the best class for our school to pair the AVID Elective with is Honors English. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that the AVID Weeks-At-a-Glance (WAGs) lesson plans are geared towards English classes. Pairing the AVID Elective with an Advanced Placement (AP) and a dual-enrolled class taught us that not all of our AVID Elective students were capable of AP level or dual-enrolled level work.
When we go through the interview process, we look up the Lexile scores in Math and Reading for all 8th Grade students who have applied and use that information along with their teachers’ recommendations and the interview to determine whether the student is accepted into the AVID program or not. We have found that if a student is too low in their Reading Lexile, they will not be as successful in an Honors level English course, and it is our job as educators to set our students up for success.
Our Counseling Department has excelled at enrolling our AVID Elective students in the classes they need to be successful. Just because a student is in the AVID program, that does not mean they are automatically enrolled in all honors classes. The only honors course they must take is the paired Honors English class. Their other classes are Honors, regular, Advanced Placement, or dual-enrolled, based on the student’s abilities and wishes. This means that we need to get to know our students well, so building strong relationships is key. We accomplish this by assigning each student in our school to three adults for all four of the years they are enrolled: their Assistant Principal, their Counselor and their Homeroom teacher.
For more information, please contact:
Mrs. Cathy Pratt
AVID Coordinator
AVID IV Elective Teacher
Science Teacher
Director, New Bern High School Robotics Club
catherine.pratt@cravenk12.org
#252-514-6400 ext 2601
New Bern High School
4200 Academic Dr
New Bern, NC 28562