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East Grand Forks school leaders describe AVID rollout at Central Middle School
Summary
District leaders and teachers told the East Grand Forks Public School District board that AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is being introduced at Central Middle School with a site-team model, an elective and a plan to build internal coaching capacity before expanding districtwide.
Superintendent Grover and district staff told the East Grand Forks Public School District board that the district is beginning a phased rollout of AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) at Central Middle School this year, focusing first on building internal site-team capacity and tightening an elective before expanding the program.
District Director Dr. Tack said the plan is a “year 0” approach that centers on training a site team and strengthening the AVID elective. "AVID has some very strict expectations as to what needs to be followed and how it needs to be followed," Dr. Tack said, adding that the elective must “dominate” during rollout so the district can create in-house expertise before scaling up.
Jim Enright, the teacher leading the AVID elective, told the board he and other staff attended a major AVID training in San Diego and saw practices used elsewhere that produced notable student behaviors and outcomes. “It’s advancement via individual determination,” Enright said. “It’s working on writing. It’s working on inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading.” He described students returning from training who were more organized and engaged than he expected.
Board members and staff discussed practical challenges for the elective, including scheduling conflicts with physical education, family and consumer science, band and chorus. Enright said those elective conflicts limit which students can enroll and urged more deliberate scheduling to make the AVID elective accessible to the “B and C students that want to become an A student.”
Dr. Tack and Enright described the rollout as incremental: build the site team, stabilize the elective, then push AVID-aligned practices schoolwide and, later, districtwide. Dr. Tack said the long-term goal would be to build capacity so coaches and other teachers could support AVID practices across grade levels.
The board did not take a formal vote on AVID at the meeting. Several board members expressed support for continuing the rollout, and the district said it will continue site-team meetings and scheduling work in the coming weeks.
Board members and staff said they would return to the board with updates as the district refines scheduling and enrollment for the elective and expands training for site-team members.
