During their Dec. 8 meeting, the Garland ISD board of trustees received updates on Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), the Montessori program and bond projects.
AVID
AVID began in 1989 as a college prep program for students who had the potential to do well in college but had virtually no hope of attending.
GISD implemented the program in 2003 with one high school and one middle school. It is now available at all of the high schools and 12 middle schools.
AVID advantages include:
- Develops readers and writers
- Develops deep content knowledge
- Teaches content-specific strategies for reading, writing, thinking and speaking
- Teaches students to be accountable for their own learning
- Develops organization and time management
Its success is illustrated in the number of AVID students attending college. In 2015, 169 GISD graduates from four high schools had participated in the AVID program. All of them were accepted into two- or four-year colleges.
These students were from Garland High School, South Garland High School, Lakeview Centennial High School and North Garland High School. Rowlett, Sachse and Naaman Forest high schools have AVID programs but have not been in existence to have participants graduate.
The addition of AVID to elementary schools began in 2011-12 with Davis, Daugherty, Golden Meadows, Handley and Weaver elementary schools. More are added each year.
The younger students are learning note-taking skills, collaborative skills, organization and accountability and success skills, communication, critical writing and thinking skills.
An addition was made in 2014 when GISD became the first Texas district to implement the AVID Excel program. Its purpose is to meet the needs of English language learners in seventh and eighth grades.
The mission is “to support bi-literacy which we know is a critical 21st century skill and to accelerate the language acquisition of English language learners putting them along the path to AVID and college preparatory coursework.”
It consists of reading, writing, oral language, academic vocabulary, study skills, self-determination/leadership.
AVID Excel has begun at O’Banion, Sam Houston, Bussey and Webb middle schools and will be implemented at two campuses each year until it available at all middle schools.
Montessori
The Montessori program mixes ability/age groups combining children 3-4-5 years old, first-third grades and fourth-fifth grades. The students learn to self-accelerate and have a choice in learning which is multisensory with an integrated curriculum. Social development skills are learned independently, in groups and with teacher instruction.
The program will begin in GISD in 2016 with 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds. Other ages will be added as follows:
2017-18 – First and second grades
2018-19 – Third grade
2019-20 – Fourth grade
2020-21 – Fifth grade
Pre-enrollment for the Montessori program began in October and will run until March 13. There is a cost for 3- and 4-year-olds, but it is free to kindergarten students. No transportation is offered.
Bond program
The renovations/additions to baseball and softball fields are underway. All fields, with the exception of the Naaman Forest High School field, will be completed by spring break.
Phase 1 projects, including the CTE facility and Caldwell, Handley, Montclair and Southgate elementaries as well as Memorial Pathway Academy are being posted for bids.
In January, bids will be requested on the Naaman Forest HS and Lakeview Centennial HS construction along with the natatorium.