ARLINGTON -- Students can't help but think of college when they step inside the AVID classroom at Carter Junior High in Arlington.

Brightly colored pennants from schools in Texas and beyond decorate the walls. To help students get there, class time is filled with study skills, testing strategies, critical-thinking exercises and tutoring.

The nationally known system, called Advancement Via Individual Determination, takes students who finished elementary school in the middle of the pack and pushes them to excel in more challenging classes. They start taking AVID as an elective in junior high and middle school and continue through high school.

As it has expanded during the last few years, Arlington administrators said they have seen AVID work time and time again. It helps students who might have floated through secondary school without failing but never realizing their potential, they said.

"We can put them on the college track," said Linda Rodgers, coordinator of secondary special populations for Arlington. "It's their choice what they do with it, but it's our job as educators to give them that choice."

AVID was developed by a public school teacher in 1980. It's in more than 4,000 schools nationwide; 75 are in Tarrant County, including in Fort Worth, Crowley, Mansfield and the Birdville school district.

National recognition

AVID is in all of Arlington's traditional junior highs and high schools. It costs $1.4 million a year in state funding to run, including personnel costs. It has grown from 1,292 students two years ago to 2,178 students this year.

Rodgers recently reported to Arlington's school board about the success of the district's program.

For example, Bowie High School was one of six AVID schools nationwide to receive a private grant to increase participation of black males in the program and provide extra mentoring.

For several years, Hutcheson Junior High has been an AVID demonstration school, one of 119 in the U.S. Last spring, Carter Junior High joined them on that list. Two Fort Worth schools, Meacham Middle School and Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School, also have that designation.

Students enrolling in the AVID elective go through an application process. The program targets those who are low income, first-generation collegegoers or historically underserved by higher education. About 46 percent of AVID students in Arlington are Hispanic; 28 percent are African-American.

AVID students must also have the "individual determination" to succeed, principals said.

Taking responsibility

Demonstration schools like Hutcheson and Carter show officials from other districts what they're doing.

Here's what they would find at Carter, Principal Rashel Stevens said. Carter has 177 seventh- and eight-graders enrolled in the elective. There, they get the support and encouragement to enroll in more challenging classes like pre-Advanced Placement algebra. But the AVID model -- which puts a premium on organization, note-taking skills, writing and critical thinking -- is encouraged schoolwide, with teachers in subjects like history and math also receiving training.

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