Page 28 March 2011 AVID Continued from page 27 courses,” said Greg Sackos, AVID district coordinator and Desert Mountain High School assistant principal. The AVID program is an elective course students take for all four years of high school. They learn organizational techniques and critical thinking. The AVID students must keep their school work tidy in a single binder and adapt the Cornell Note-Taking System. “The students become accustomed to learning about writing, inquiry, collaboration, reading strategies and organization,” Sackos said. “It is strategic to have academic intervention in schools earlier on.” AVID started in San Diego about 30 years ago and currently serves more than 300,000 students in 46 states and 16 countries. AVID was brought to the Arcadia complex about four years ago when educators saw how well it was working in other schools. “The goal of AVID is to try and open up all opportunities and properly prepare the students for higher education,” said Erica McClurg, Arcadia High School AVID site coordinator and teacher. At AHS the same teacher continues with the same group of students all four years. “We’re here to help the kids succeed and go to college,” said Lisa Coleman, Arcadia High School junior AVID instructor and teacher. “It’s important to me to serve the traditionally underserved.” In the high school, students spend a signi fi cant amount of time researching colleges, fi nding scholarship opportunities and developing their resumes. “The ninth-grade is a lot about organization, the 10th-grade focuses on practice and studying, 11th-grade is about career communication and college preparation and 12th-grade grade is a lot of writing, reading and studying,” Coleman said. McClurg said students often don’t think they can handle more dif fi cult classes, but “I hear about how much their grades have improved.” www.AreaSuccess.com 602.214.5169 TRUTH TRUTH THERAPY THERAPY KACHINA Quality Dry Cleaning 602-955-5540 3926 E. Indian School Road Arcadia Family Owned & Operated Since 1959 Home & Office Pickup & Delivery Available

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