AVID Classes Provide Mediocre College Preparation----- College Preparation Should Provide Academic Training, Such as Witnessed in My Model Essays for the ACT Writing Exam

I train students of all ages and purposes in the New Salem Educational Initiative.  My preK-12 students range in age from 4 to 18.  I have a number of college students under my instruction, adults who are returning to college, those who aspire to obtain their GED, and those who are in unusual situations, such as a prisoner with whom I am working who is incarcerated under the brutal system in Texas.

 

I know, therefore, that AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a packaged program that gives students a bit of instruction in taking Cornell Notes, teachers them how to fill out applications and other forms, and gives them experiences striding onto postsecondary campuses to converse with college and university staff.

 

But there is no rigorous academic content to AVID classes, because instructors are not academic heavyweights.  And given the low level of academic acuity manifested by too many teachers in the Minneapolis Public Schools, there is little wonder that the average ACT score is 16, placing the typical student at the 19^th percentile, which means in the lower 81% of students taking the test nationally.

 

I know that when a student enters the New Salem Educational Initiative, I will have to provide all rigorous subject and skill area instruction that a student receives.  As early as grade 7, my students start to train for the ACT;  that instruction grows ever more intensive during grades 9-12 in high school.  School districts now want to shuffle as many students through the ACT as possible to claim high participation rates, but the results are paltry.  Students typically are rushed into taking the ACT late in their junior (grade 11) year.  I typically have my students take the ACT late in October of their grade 12 (senior) year, which gives them maximum preparation time and leaves plenty of time for making college and university applications.

 

By that time, the typical student of mine has had multiyear preparation in exercises that I write myself, cued to an ACT preparation manual.

 

In the entries just below as you scroll on down this blog, you will see a prompt to the ACT Writing Exam and two of the essays that I have written as models for my students.  Notice that these essays are written as point and counterpoint to provide critical analytical opportunities for my students, and that the vocabulary and manner of written expression are sophisticated, simultaneously serving as practice for the ACT Reading Exam.

 

Please proceed now to these next entries and ponder why students in the Minneapolis Public Schools do not get such rigor of preparation in regular school day classes