AVID Higher Education
During its 30-year history, AVID has demonstrated success by preparing elementary and secondary students, mostly underserved from families without a college-going tradition. It is now essential to reach beyond the secondary level. Our strong connections to higher education institutions prompted colleges and universities to ask the AVID Center to extend our efforts to college students and create the possibility of a college support pipeline with grades 4-16.
There are hard truths regarding the college completion crisis to which AVID can bring hope:
- The percentage of high school graduates enrolling in college is increasing for all racial and income groups (NASH & Education Trust, 2009); however, these gains in college access rates are not being matched by gains in college success rates (Hunt & Carruthers, 2004).
- The United States has one of the highest college-going rates in the world, yet its college-completion rate (both 2-year and 4-year) rank near the bottom half of all industrialized nations (College Board, 2008a; National Governors Association, 2008).
- Only 35% of America's college students graduate with a bachelor's degree in four years and just over half (52%) graduate within six years (College Board, 2009). For students who attend college part-time, the completion rate is even lower: Less than 25% graduate within eight years (Complete College America, 2011).
- Viewing America's current college-completion rates from an international perspective, the United States has dropped from number two in the world to number 12, and is in the process of dropping further (Complete College America, 2010). If this trend continues, the current generation of college-age Americans will be the first in U.S. history to be less educated than its parents (CCSSE, 2010).
AVID's Higher Education System has the potential to fill the following gaps in the quality of American undergraduate education that are currently contributing to its low college-completion rates.
- The gap in college completion rates between low-income and high-income students, and between white students and students of color
- The gap between the number of students who intend to transfer from 2-Year to 4-year colleges and number who actually do
- The gap in collaboration between schools and colleges/universities
- The gap between the quality of graduate-school preparation of college faculty and the quality of their professional performance as undergraduate teachers and advisors
- The gap between higher education's emphasis on student acquisition of discipline-specific content and the need for students to develop cross-disciplinary, lifelong learning skills
- The gap between the current (and urgent) need for higher education to make transformative change to meet the needs of today's growing number of first-generation students, and the reality that higher education institutions are notoriously slow to change
For more information regarding the college completion crisis, view: Closing the Gaps: The Relevance of AVID's Higher Education System to the Current Needs of American Higher Education by Dr. Joseph B. Cuseo.
What is AVID Higher Education?
The AVID Higher Education System (APS) may be described as a holistic, integrated college-success system designed for students with the determination to succeed and for campuses committed to promoting student success. APS is predicated on the proposition that college students who have the will to succeed will succeed - if they are challenged and given the academic and psychosocial support needed to meet that challenge.
AVID's Higher Education System builds on the success of AVID's precollege system that has effectively promoted high school students' college access and preparedness of secondary students for over 30 years. By now expanding its scope to span both sides of the secondary-higher education bridge, AVID extends its historic mission of promoting college readiness to include college success.AVID Higher Education has a distinctive impact on:
- Students
- Faculty
- Campus Culture
To learn about the impacts at each level, view What Makes AVID's Higher Education System Effective and Distinctive? and the AVID Higher Education System Brochure.
Higher Education Institutions
AVID Higher Education completes the AVID College Readiness System and acknowledges that many of today's college students still need support in achieving their goal of college completion. AVID Higher Education's mission is to partner with institutions of higher education to improve student learning, persistence, completion, and success in and beyond college. Providing the organizational and professional learning needed, AVID Higher Education examines student barriers and needed support structures for success. Currently, there are 24 AVID Higher Education campuses that are diverse in geographic setting, students' populations, and size.
- Amarillo College (TX)
- Augsburg College (MN)
- California State University at Bakersfield (CA)
- Central Texas College (TX)
- Huston-Tillotson University (TX)
- Los Medanos College (CA)
- Mt. Hood Community College (OR)
- Odessa College (TX)
- Skagit Valley College (WA)
- Southwest Texas Junior College (TX)
- Texas A&M Central Texas (TX)
- Texas A&M Commerce (TX)
- Texas A&M Corpus Christi (TX)
- Texas A&M Kingsville (TX)
- Texas College (TX)
- Texas State Technical College, Harlingen (TX)
- Texas Southern University (TX)
- Texas Tech University (TX)
- Texas Woman's University (TX)
- University of Houston Downtown (TX)
- University of Texas at Arlington (TX)
- University of Texas Pan American (TX)
- University of Texas of the Permian Basin (TX)
- Wiley College (TX)
Implementation
Implementation of AVID Higher Education requires a strong commitment from across the campus. Success relies on fidelity to the AVID Higher Education System and its five Essentials.
- Essential 1 - Campus Leadership and Support
Campus leadership actively supports and participates in the implementation of AVID Higher Education. - Essential 2 - The AVID Campus Team: Campus-Wide Collaboration
The AVID Campus Team works collaboratively to develop, implement and sustain AVID Higher Education. - Essential 3 – Faculty and Staff Professional Learning
The Campus Plan includes on-campus and off-campus AVID Higher Education professional learning experiences.
- Essential 4 – AVID Experience: First Year through Completion
AVID Higher Education students receive support through the AVID Seminar and other curricular and co-curricular experiences that continue through graduation or program completion.
- Essential 5 - Evaluation and Research
AVID Higher Education campuses participate in the evaluation of AVID Higher Education through data collection and related research.
Want to learn more about each Essential? View the AVID Higher Education Essentials and Research & Scholarship Supporting APS Essentials.
Are you ready for AVID Higher Education? For required next steps, view the APS Implementation Next Steps.
Want to learn more?
The Significant Six: Effective & Distinctive Features of the AVID Higher Education System by Joseph B. Cuseo, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Psychology.
The Significant Six: Effective & Distinctive Features of the AVID Higher Education System
This manuscript analyzes AVID Higher Education's features that align with the needs of today's college students, describing how AVID incorporates these features and how each feature should exert a positive impact on the success of college students in general and in the underrepresented college students in particular.
Access Research Journal, Issue 14.3, Fall 2008 features the following article about Higher Education:
Beyond High School: AVID's Higher Education Project
Strong connections to higher education institutions have caused colleges and universities to ask AVID Center about extending AVID's reach to support students in college, creating the possibility of a college readiness pipeline with grades 4-16.
The Promise of Higher Education AVID
From Review of Research and Practice on the First-Year Experience Movement
Learn more about the inception of AVID Higher Education in this article by Harriett Howell Custer.