Joe and Rose Kennedy use to gather their children every evening at the dinner table and quiz them on current events of the day.

"With nine of us eager to impress our parents as well as one another, it was hard to get a word in unless you had something interesting to say," Ted Kennedy recalled in a 2009 biography. The dining room was a classroom.

An elective course being offered at Carl Sandburg Elementary and West Potomac High School is a comparable classroom without the dinner table.

AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, teaches students how to survive and thrive academically, said Carl Sandburg Middle School Counselor Melinda Caldwell, who helps in coordinating the national program. It does it by holding students accountable to the highest standard while providing academic and social support.

Forty students and parents gathered at Sandburg in Alexandria last Thursday night, Nov. 5, after dinner to hear about its success. President Obama’s director of the Center for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Peter Groff, Fairfax County Public School Assistant Superintendent Dr. Scott Brabrand, and the county’s AVID director, Derek Steele, were all there to boast of its achievements and explain why it’s necessary.

"One hundred percent of seniors in AVID went to a two- or four-year college this fall," Brabrand said. "AVID is a ticket to your son’s or daughter’s dream. There’s no playing around. It starts right here in middle school," he said.

Josue Sanchez, who took the elective course for three years at West Potomac, is one of those students it helped.

"I come from a not well-educated family," the 20-year-old Davis and Elkins College freshman said Monday. In fact, Sanchez is the first in his family to enter college. "The program gave me the tools to get in." And stay in. Sanchez has scored As and Bs in his first semester, he said.



MORE SPECIFICALLY, AVID focuses on reading, writing, study skills, test taking, organization, critical-thinking, goal-setting, choosing a college, and preparing for college entrance exams, according to its Web site.

One tool students learn is the Cornell note-taking method, developed in the 1950s by a professor there.

Students follow the five "Rs" procedure when listening in class: record, reduce, recite, reflect, and review. Two columns are outlined on a sheet of paper. The column on the right is larger than the column on the left. Notes from a class are recorded in the column on the right, avoiding long sentences and using abbreviations. Questions and key words are written on the left. Once the class is over, students use another sheet of paper to cover the column on the right and respond to questions and key words on the left. Summaries of each class are placed at the bottom of the page. In short, the procedure helps to retain memory and leads to a better understanding of the class.

Counselors at Sandburg and West Potomac look at several elements in selecting students for AVID, Caldwell said.

"Is the student the first generation of his family to be college-bound? Is the student of a population that is less served in college? Is the student performing averagely — Bs and Cs and maybe a D here and there? We also look at a student who is in average classes, or general education class, but performing well. We want that student to be successful in rigorous courses," she said.

Audrey Dittman, 12, was one of those students in honor classes but whose performance ranged from As to Cs.

"She needed to use time constructively. She always received high marks in being good and cooperative, but when it came to getting the work done she faltered," said her mother, Michelle Dittman, a first grade teacher at Stratford Landing Elementary School.

"AVID has kept Audrey on track and organized. It keeps her responsible," she said.

And the results are proof. She scored straight As and one B-plus on her recent report card.



THIS YEAR, eight percent of Sandburg’s 1,200 students are enrolled in AVID. Last year, 95 percent of its 68 enrolled students passed their core classes; 80 percent passed with a C or higher, said Caldwell.

West Potomac’s class of 2009 was the first to have gone through four years of AVID and all were accepted to college.

Overall, 65 percent of Fairfax County’s 12,005 graduates in the class of 2008 planned to attend a four-year college; 26.3 percent, or 3,160 graduates headed to a two-year institution, according to Fairfax County Public School’s spokesperson Mary Shaw. 2009 figures were unavailable.

AVID has helped many students academically, but it has also helped families share responsibilities collectively, Caldwell said.

"AVID is a family. Everyone in it is expected be a part of it," she said.