“Looking at our kids and what support they need, we thought we could really make a difference for the kids,” AVID and English teacher Sarah Milosh said.
After the school’s budget cuts for next year were released, the district announced that AVID classes will not be a part of the district’s curriculum. What will undergraduates do next year when they have no more AVID classes to teach them about the pathways for their future goals in life? AVID teaches students the formula for school. Teaching students how to study properly for tests, teaching about life and how to take it head-on, how to prepare for college and solve real-life problems.
“For me, it means opportunity for students that otherwise may not have opportunity,” Milosh said, “It’s really about creating a pathway for kids to pursue their future dreams.”
AVID has been a course in the district since 2019, and has helped hundreds of students with their education. There are different levels for AVID students. Freshman year is all about figuring out how to study, to communicate with teachers, to prepare for tests and how to do school in general. Sophomore year is about mapping out their future and their careers. Junior year is about executing the plan and getting a start on how to prepare for later on after high school, and senior year is finally just making it through high school with passing all classes, and figuring out where to go after graduation.
“It was something that helped me grow as a person,” AVID tutor and Azle graduate Jasmine Valdez said. “It was one of the classes I was in that helped me come out of my shell.”
AVID also teaches students to communicate with their classmates and teachers. It teaches them how to treat other people with kindness and respect, and it’s a place where you are able to speak up for yourself in front of others.
“The teachers here for AVID are some of the best communicators and people that can get onto your level, type of relationship,” senior Angel Garcia said. “You’re chosen to be in this class for a reason [and] they know the situation you’re going through.”
The AVID program stretches further than just to the students in the AVID classes.
“It’s been a global impact on the campus. I would say that AVID has touched every corner of our campus, every content area, every subject, ” Principal Nate Driver said, “They’ve had an impact on what goes on in our classrooms.”
Quotes: First and foremost there are some budget constraints that we’ve been working through, and we feel like we can still incorporate a lot of AVID strategies and not be affiliated with AVID. There are a lot of things that AVID does that we believe in that they do for our students in preparation for their next steps for those students who may be at risk of not going to college. And I feel like we can still fill those gaps in other places without it being tied to AVID. We still believe in the AVID strategies and we’ll still incorporate AVID instructional strategies into our school and with teachers and our instructional expectations. We’re looking to fill some of those holes that we are losing with AVID as far as preparing some of those students specifically for that next level. We’re still trying to work through and figure out how and with whom we’ll fill those gaps.
Students will have to pick another elective. Right now, because it’s an elective course, it’s not a required course. They’re just going to have to choose something different other than AVID. The staff will just be assigned different roles. No one’s being cut, or anything like that. Like Mrs. Milosh, who has a couple of AVID classes and an AVID conference period. She’ll lose those, and we’ll just replace them with English classes.
One of the big things is the college prep side of it—applications, tours, FAFSA—all those things that AVID does a lot to help with those junior and senior kids getting ready for the next level. So, how can our C.O.O.L. counselor—how can she support these students specifically, and how she can help pick up that slack that those kids our going to lose from having the class every day. She does some of those things, so how can she continue to target and work with those student who may be at risk.
AVID has been instrumental in, one, raising the instructional aspect of our school. They lead a lot of campus professional development for our staff, so bringing a lot of instructional strategies, which helps the entirety of the staff. That translates to higher achievement scores because of these strategies and things teachers have incorporated. There have been—I don’t even know how many kids who have been impacted, and better preparing them, challenging them, putting them in rigorous courses, getting them to the next step, the next level, helping them fill out their college applications. I mean, it’s been a global impact here on the campus. I would say that AVID has touched every corner of our campus, every content area, every subject. They’ve had an impact on what goes on in our classrooms.
