AVID: Celebrating 15 Years

The AVID Schoolwide system has for fifteen years played a key role in closing the achievement gap and ensuring that students get to college. AVID has seen tremendous gains in growing participation rates in elementary through high school, increasing grade point averages (GPAs), and increased enrollment in rigorous courses.

AVID: 15 Years

AVID Timeline

2008-2009

•ACPS AVID begins modified implementation and pilot year AVID partnership in grades 7th and 8th grade at FCH and GW and 9th grade at Minnie Howard with approximately 300 students during the inaguarl year led by ACPS's own and T.C. Williams Titan Alum, Dr. Grace Taylor, current ACPS Chief of Staff.

2009-2010

•Full AVID implementation in Francis Hammond MS and George Washington MS and Minnie Howard in grade 7th, 8th, and 9th grade with 12 total sections of the AVID elective.

2010-2011

ACPS is serving approximately 150 middle school students in AVID 7 and AVID 8 across both Francis Hammond Middle and George Washington MS's with just two teacher total.

2011-2012

George Washington MS AVID 8 students take part in first AVID overnight college tour of the Hamton Roads Tiemwater area, visiting ODU, Christopher Newport, Hampton University, and Norflolk State led by standout AVID teacher, Diane Duff who served as the AVID elective teacher for nine years.

2012-2013

•ACPS AVID graduates its FIRST AVID 12 Class of 2012 graduating class of 11 seniors lead by first AVID 12 Teacher, Sarah Kiyak. One Senior student receives the Howard University Legacy Scholarship.

2013-2014

•AVID engages in a pilot fundraiser, flavored Kettlecorn for the first-year, which now garners more that 7000 bags and $18,500 sold anually by Team ACPS

•AVID Expansion happens-Cora Kelly joins the AVID Elementary system as the first ACPS elementary site in the region.

2015-2016

•The AVID Liaison leadership role was born, an opportunity for two AVID 12 student leaders to be selected as advocates for AVID across the school divisoin, a senior experience pilot project brought to reality by Class of 2016 seniors, Chanece Bigelow and Yosselin Turcios.

2016-2017

•ACPS AVID has its FIRST IVY league college acceptance, Saleh Hassan, a 6 year AVID enrollee, accpeted on a full-tuition college scholarship to Cornell Univesity.

•Senior Michayla Brandao was ACPS and AVID's FIRST National Dell Scholar Winner, who went on to attend and graduate from NYU in 2021.

2017-2018

Class of 2017 collect more than $3.3 mil in scholarship awards.
Cora Kelly has the most 5th graders accpeted to GWMS AVID with fifteen students accepted to AVID 6.

2018-2019

AVID Senior, Amaiya Howard received the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria's top scholarship award of $40,000.
Patrick Henry middle grades adds a section of AVID 8 students and become the last of the four ACPS secondary schools to join the AVID family.

2019-2020

• AVID Excel, an elective offering for long-term English learners, is added to the ACPS AVID partnership with a cohort starting at Francis Hammond Middle School under the direction of Keisha Shirley and Dr. Pierrette Finney. GW follows suit the following year

2020-2021

•Francis Hammond MS AVID says farewell to Ms. Hazel Petty, who handed the AVID torch off after eleven years as the AVID elective teacher, serving more than 900 students over the years in this role.

2021-2022

•Ryan E.Fields is named ACPS AVID's second Dell Scholarship winner ever; Ryan went on to attend Miami of Ohio and study business.

2022-2023

•ACPS AVID has their first National AVID Summer Institute Student Speaker, rising sophomore, Allyson Castillo. Allyson went on to share her AVID journey through a live speech in front of 3500 educators in Orlando, Florida. This is an honor bestowed to approximately 22 students each summer.

2023-2024

Overall ACPS AVID elective enrollment has its largest cohort since 2008 with 808 students enrolled across five school, six sites in grade 6th- 12th, tripling in size since inception.
Class of 2024 have amassed more than $1.6 million in scholarship offers as of February 2024..

Current Demographics and Data: AVID In ACPS as of December 2023

Demographics

	Middle School	High School	Total %
Hispanic	44.75	51	48%
American Indian/ Native Alaskan	0	0	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	4.5	2	3%
Black/African American	44.25	39	43%
Native Hawaiian	1	.5	<1%
White	6	5	3%
2 + more	2.5	2	2%

Gender- Identifies as M/F Across Grade Levels

	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	Total

MALE	80	86	88	28	22	17	13	334
FEMALE	106	97	101	59	49	41	19	472
Total	186	183	189	87	71	58	32	806

2023-24 AVID FARM Qualified and EL (former or currently serviced)

	Total AVID Elective Enrollment	FARM	EL
ACHS 9-12	247	76%	20%
MS
FCH*		76%	32%
GW*		86%	43%
JH		72%	24%
PH		60%	24%
Total Ave		74%	28.6

*Schools that have AVID Excel

2022-23 AVID Elective Average Attendance by Site

	Site	Total Ave.
ACHS	97% (3% more than total school ave.)	97.26% ave. attendance for AVID-enrolled students
FCH	96%
GW	95.4%
JH	99.4%
PH	98.5% (4% more than total school ave.)

ACHS Academic Data Points:

Current ACPS- High School 9-12 Enrollment: 3 + years of AVID Elective Enrollment (including middle school grades)
200/247	88%

% of HS students taking Dual Enrollment courses this year 10th-12th
87/160 eligible	54%

Advanced Placement Enrollment in Current year (9th- 12th)
9th -33%	10th- 69%	11th- 100%	12th- 94%

15 FACTS or “Did You Know” About AVID in ACPS?

1	Currently, AVID elective is serving approximately 48% Hispanic, 3% Asian/Pacific Islander, 43% Black/African American, 3% White, 2% of multi-race identifying students.
2	AVID students received college acceptances from historically black colleges and universities, predominantly white institutions, and even Ivy League schools. AVID Class of 2016 Saleh Hassen went on to attend Cornell University on a full scholarship.
3	ACPS AVID attendance was 97.2% last year, with each site having between a 2-4% higher attendance rate compared to that of the entire school. JH AVID celebrated a 99% attendance rate in 2022-2023.
4	AVID Senior classes average fifteen Scholarship Fund of Alexandria winners each year, amassing more than $200,000 in renewable FREE money for college!
5	AVID uses their AVID Kettlecorn fundraiser as a way to build leadership and communication skills with their students, selling more than 6500 bags each year.
6	50% of AVID Excel students from Francis Hammond MS have gone on to be successful in the AVID 9 elective class over the past two years.
7	AVID provides regular in-class tutorials with a tutor team who supports students in their Honors, dual enrollment and Advanced Placement courses. This year 54% OF 10th-12th graders are taking a dual enrollment while 100% of AVID 11th graders are taking an AP course.
8	88% of AVID 9th-12th graders have been enrolled in AVID for 3+ years stemming back to middle school.
9	In 2017, three ACHS AVID students were selected as Summer Institute Student Leaders for the Philadelphia location, leading workshops over 3 days of professional learning with 2000 educators.
10	Each year AVID 12 students qualify for the Dell Scholarship, a national scholarship that awards $20,000 in tuition and a laptop to more than 250 winners across the U.S. ACPS has had two winners over the past 10 years.
11	This year AVID students across the district have been on more than 28 external college field trips or cultural events provided so they can grow their college and career #opportunityknowledge.
12	The Class of 2023 cohort has amassed the most scholarships and Scholarship Fund of Alexandria awards with $3.4 mil in offers in total from the past 12 graduating classes.
13	The past four graduating classes of AVID have amassed more than $3 mil in scholarship awards. AVID supports the in-class help for the scholarship search and application process!
14	Since the first graduating Class of 2012, the cohort’s average GPA has risen from 2.8 GPA to 3.4 average GPA.
15	In 15 years and with an enrollment of 800 + students today, AVID has tripled its AVID elective enrollment since 2008-09 starting with 300 students