Graves Middle School hosted an AVID training for teachers from L.A. County and the surrounding area Friday, March 9, to help educators understand their journey to how they became a National AVID Demonstration site and how they took AVID school wide.
Graves’ principal, Dr. Fraijo, AVID Program Manager, Carmen, and AVID Instructional Coach, Dan Honeycutt, all shared with educators about the program.
Dr. Fraijo talked about how they began introducing AVID with amplified language arts, which is a digital platform. From there they added accelerated math track, and amplified science, then eventually adding scholar groups and embedded support. Graves now has AVID trained teachers and AVID tutors, many who have gone through the AVID program themselves. In total it took Graves a process of six years to become and AVID demonstration site with an intense two years.
“We are a growth mindset school,” Dr. Fraijo stated, regarding Graves’ eagerness to continue pushing the school to new academic heights.
During the training they also went over the AVID Excel program. They explained that the Excel program is in no way less than the AVID Program, it simply adds the academic English into it’s curriculum. All AVID and AVID Excel students have the same teachers and go on the same field trips.
“We are intentional about AVID Excel not being a lesser program. We make sure to remind people that it’s all the same teachers and all the same trips,” Dan Honeycutt stated.
After hearing about the process on how to take AVID school wide and becoming a demonstration site, educators were able to visit classrooms and observe teachings. The training then closed with attendees being able to hear from AVID students and parents about how AVID has helped students grow both inside and outside of the classroom.
Since becoming a national demonstration site, Graves has hosted a variety of AVID trainings for local and international educators.