Definitions for words and concepts commonly used in the AVID world. For reference, some of the terms are linked to webpages that provide additional context about the topic.

Note: You can use Ctrl + F (⌘ + F on a Mac) to search this glossary for specific words.

AVID^®: Advancement Via Individual Determination (from Latin avidus, eager for knowledge).

AVID Alumni: Graduates of the AVID Elective class.

AVID Alumni Services: Services designed to align to AVID’s mission. AVID Alumni Services identify AVID alumni and engage them with AVID students, AVID Center, and other AVID alumni.

AVID Center: A nonprofit organization that supports districts nationally and internationally through the National Headquarters in San Diego.

AVID Certified Educators (ACE): The AVID Certified Educator course is designed for K–12 educators to validate the commitment to continuous reflective practice, application of the AVID Foundations of Instruction, and demonstration of high-impact learning environments that facilitate college and career readiness for all students. Through completion of this experience, educators will be prepared to design and facilitate a model AVID classroom that actualizes the AVID Framework, resulting in improved college and career readiness for all of the educators' students.

The AVID College and Career Readiness Framework: The AVID College and Career Readiness Framework helps educators reframe how they view students’ potential and reframe how they create a learning ecosystem with existing talent, resources, and systems.

What Students Need: AVID students receive intentional support and mentoring in three major areas that help them become confident individuals who can successfully navigate life and career:

• Rigorous Academic Preparedness: Students develop academic skills and can successfully complete rigorous college and career preparatory curriculum and experiences.
• Opportunity Knowledge: Students research opportunities, set goals, make choices that support their long-term aspirations, and successfully navigate transitions to the next level.
• Student Agency: Students believe in themselves and act intentionally to build relationships, persist through obstacles, and activate their academic, social, emotional, and professional knowledge and skills to reach their potential.

Collective Student Agency: Groups of students share in the belief that college and career readiness is attainable and act intentionally in support of each other to build and maintain relationships, persist through obstacles, and further develop their academic, social, emotional, and professional knowledge and skills.

What Educators Must Do: Teachers and other adults on a school campus play an important role in student success. AVID supports educators and transforms the learning environment into one where students are challenged, supported, and provided the tools needed to succeed. To do this, educators ​must:

• Insist on Rigor: Educators provide learning experiences in which every student is challenged, is engaged, and develops a greater ownership of their learning through increasingly complex levels of understanding.
• Break Down Barriers: Educators actively identify and work to eliminate structural and perceptual barriers that limit students’ access to relevant and challenging learning opportunities.
• Align the Work: Educators increasingly align policies, practices, and beliefs to the shared vision of all students succeeding in college, career, and life.
• Advocate for Students: Educators extend social, emotional, and academic support to students and challenge policies, practices, or beliefs that limit potential.

Collective Educator Agency: Educators on a campus take intentional actions based on shared beliefs and trust that, together, they can increase opportunity and measurable success for all students and each other.

AVID College and Career Readiness System (ACRS): The AVID College and Career Readiness System utilizes AVID strategies to empower students (elementary through secondary) to develop academic skills, individual determination, and social adaptability, leading to successful transitions and success into college, career, military, and life.

AVID Elementary: An intentional, systemic approach to support all preK–6 students to develop the academic skills, knowledge, and behaviors they will need to be successful in middle school, high school, and college in an age-appropriate and challenging way.

AVID Secondary: AVID College and Career Readiness System typically implemented in middle, junior high, and high schools. The AVID Elective class is offered to select students, and AVID strategies are used schoolwide. ​

AVID College- and Career-​​​ready Student: A student who possesses the rigorous academic preparation, opportunity knowledge, and student agency skills to access and succeed in college and careers.

AVID Digital Libraries: For Secondary and Elementary AVID member sites, AVID Digital Libraries provide access to digital copies of the AVID curriculum guides as well as links to relevant resources and handouts.

AVID District Director: Oversees the implementation of the AVID system in schools within their district, providing strategic leadership, training, and support to ensure the program's success in improving student readiness for college and careers.

AVID Elective: Year-long elective class for middle and high school students, available within the regular academic school day at secondary sites and aligned to the AVID College and Career Readiness Framework for implementation integrity and fidelity. (Note: AVID Excel^® students attend the AVID Excel Elective​​​​​​​.)

AVID Elective student: A student who has the desire to attend college and is capable of completing rigorous courses, but may not be meeting their full potential and would benefit from AVID Elective support for college and career readiness. Typically, AVID Elective students are students in the academic middle in postsecondary institutions. AVID places these students in Advanced Placement^® or honors courses without remediation.

AVID Elementary Assessments: An internal data tracking spreadsheet that focuses on four key components of AVID Elementary—organizational tool, agenda/planner, note-taking, and inquiry. Teachers should informally assess students continually. Assessments are administered three times throughout the year:

• Pre-assessment — within the first 2 weeks of school
• Mid-assessment — within 2 weeks after winter break
• Post-assessment — within the last 2 weeks of school

AVID Emerge™: A language development resource designed to enhance instruction, promote student agency, and foster family engagement for multilingual learners in ELD settings. It offers differentiated content aligned with the AVID College and Career Readiness Framework, a digital toolkit with resources, state standard crosswalks, and family-school partnership workshops, along with professional learning opportunities for educators.   

AVID Essential Skills: The skills, knowledge, and behaviors students need to be prepared for college and career readiness by further defining and deconstructing Student Agency, Rigorous Academic Preparedness, and Opportunity Knowledge from the AVID College and Career Readiness Framework. The AVID Essential Skills can be utilized by preK–12 educators to align curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices. The skills support calibration of AVID's learning programs, products, and services.

AVID Essential Skills: Elementary Descriptors: The Elementary Descriptors further define the AVID Essential Skills through the lens of the gradual release of responsibility and reflect what students will know and be able to do by the end of the grade band (preK–K, grades 1–2, grades 3–5/6).

AVID Excel^®: A middle school program for long-term English language learners that includes professional learning, AVID Excel coursework, family connections, and promotion of biliteracy. This program is intended to accelerate academic language acquisition and increase students’ access to the 9th grade AVID Elective and college-preparatory courses.

AVID Mission: AVID’s mission is to close the opportunity gap by preparing all students for college and career readiness and success in a global society.

AVID National Conference: A dynamic hub for educators to share innovative practices and learn from each other. This user-focused event features inspiring keynote speakers, energizing sessions, and collaborative forums designed for leaders and AVID educators in the field. It's a world-class space for innovation, where educators exchange strategies to enhance AVID implementation and close the opportunity gap for students.

AVID Professional Learning Modules (APLMs): Flexible 90-minute sessions—that are easily split into two 45-minute segments if needed—delivered virtually, blended, or in-person. They provide ready-to-go professional development to support quality implementation of the AVID College and Career Readiness System. Each module includes a PowerPoint, syllabus, and handouts. Modules can be mixed and matched for tailored half- or full-day learning experiences.

AVID Site Coordinator: A strong advocate who is committed to the philosophy of AVID, including the support for opportunity and access for all students to advanced classes. Alongside the principal, the AVID Site Coordinator leads in building an active, participatory AVID Site Team, engaging members in monitoring progress of AVID implementation through the collection of evidence and providing data for certification purposes. The AVID Site Coordinator advocates and provides professional learning regarding AVID methodologies for other staff members of the school and district.

AVID Site Team: A voluntary team of administrators, counselors, teachers, and others who work together to close the opportunity gap and provide college and career readiness for all students by implementing and sustaining AVID across their school site. The AVID Site Team provides a balanced representation of school leadership and teachers who collaborate to promote access to rigorous content and instruction through the use of AVID strategies and shared responsibility for student outcomes, through Collective Educator Agency.

AVID STEM Connections^®: Ready-to-go lessons that empower K–12 teachers across all content areas to engage students in STEM activities rooted in real-world issues, helping all students build STEM literacy and career awareness while developing the critical skills required for success in any discipline or profession of the future.

AVID Strategy: A specific teaching or learning method implemented to promote student success in college, career, and life. AVID WICOR^® strategies include inquiry-based, collaborative structures that also support language, literacy, and organizational skill development.

AVID Summer Bridge Programs: Summer programs that provide middle and high school students with the opportunity to engage in interactive and fun lessons in the areas of science, math, and English language development. The AVID Math and Science Summer Bridge programs accelerate learning by enhancing students’ critical thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving skills. The AVID English Language Development (ELD) Summer Bridge program focuses on students’ academic language acquisition, community building, and school connectivity.

AVID Tutor: AVID Tutors are trained in the AVID Tutorial Process, support students’ WICOR skill development, and serve as role models for AVID Elective students. Options for AVID Tutors* include, in preferential order:

• Current college students
• Cross-age​ students or adults (AVID cross-age tutors are older secondary students from a different grade level and a different classroom than those in the AVID Elective class. They implement and model WICOR strategies in the AVID collaborative, inquiry-based tutorial process.)
• Peers from the same grade level, including but not limited to students in the AVID Elective class

*Each of these types of tutors can be face-to-face or serve as eTutors.

AVID Weekly^®: Literacy Connections Schoolwide and AVID^® Elementary Weekly: Literacy Connections Schoolwide​: Ready-to-go lessons to support disciplinary literacy, preparing students for college, careers, and life. These lessons and resources, based on the AVID Critical Reading Process and applicable across all content areas, feature engaging text, including news articles, infographics, videos, and images, to captivate students and expose them to diverse communication styles. Readability levels help support the right level of rigor for each student, and AVID’s WICOR^® methodology weaves Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading together to foster critical thinking and deeper learning. The secondary subscription is annual, while elementary is included in the AVID Elementary membership, all accessible within AVID's eLearning Platform.

AVIDly Adulting: A podcast aimed at first-year AVID alumni. The podcast guests are AVID alumni who provide advice on how to best navigate career and life.

AVID.org: A public-facing website for general audiences, especially educators, to access info on AVID’s Leadership Team, mission, and vision. The site highlights AVID products, programs, and services and features resources and success stories to support educational transformation.

Content Management System (CMS): A software program used to manage and store content, allowing multiple contributors to create, modify, and publish content. CMSs are used to build and manage websites and apps.

District Director Leadership (DDL): The District Director Leadership (DDL) training series is designed to prepare District Directors (DDs) for success and addresses the need for a team approach to implementing AVID and fostering districtwide transformation. Over a 2-year journey, four sessions are offered:

• DDL 1: Leadership Connection (DDL Team attends with the DD)
• DDL 2: Maximizing Roles and Responsibilities
• DDL 3: Leadership Reconnection (DDL Team attends with the DD)
• DDL 4: Strategic Planning and Impact

District Leadership Team: A team of district and/or site leaders that works collaboratively as described in the AVID Leadership Profiles to lead and manage AVID implementation. When a district has engaged in District Director Leadership (DDL), this is the four-person team that engages in the training.

Districtwide AVID: Grounded in the AVID College and Career Readiness Framework, Districtwide AVID informs strategic planning and resource allocation to establish the beliefs and infrastructure needed to ensure college and career readiness for all students.

Foundations of Instruction (FOI): A guide for educators based on five key components—positive relationships, appropriate environment, clear learning objectives, diagnostic teaching, and strategic lesson design—to accelerate learning and support the AVID College and Career Readiness Framework. By implementing these practices, educators create a high-impact learning environment where students develop skills to engage with challenging content and build confidence for success in the classroom and beyond.

MyAVID: Portal with a secured entry point for members, with proprietary tools and content for implementation of AVID.

New Teacher Fellows: AVID alumni (graduates of the AVID Elective) who are currently in the final year of student teaching/teacher preparation in an institution of higher learning and have applied and been selected for AVID’s New Teacher Fellows Program. Once selected, they engage in an 18-month system of support which includes professional learning, coaching, mentoring, career readiness, and networking that continues into their first year of teaching.

Persistence Rate: The percentage of students who returned to the same 2- or 4-year postsecondary institution for the second fall after high school after having been enrolled at that 2- or 4-year institution within the first fall after high school.  ​

Weeks at a Glance (WAG): A collection of unit and lesson plans for the AVID Elective Class. Units are designed by grade level and divided into four terms within each grade level. Each term addresses the AVID Elective Standards which are aligned to the AVID Essential Skills and the student-facing components of the AVID College and Career Readiness (CCR) Framework: Rigorous Academic Preparedness, Opportunity Knowledge, Student Agency, and Relational Capacity. 

6-Year Completion Rate: The percentage of students who graduate from a 2-year or 4-year college within 6 years of enrollment directly after high school.

AVID strategies include writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading (WICOR). Well-chosen strategies, paired with the intended grade-level standards in a classroom, allow all students to have access to a rigorous learning environment that will prepare them for college and career.

WICOR^®: Key methodologies used in an AVID Elementary and AVID Elective face-to-face, blended, or virtual classroom and AVID Schoolwide site. The following five skills are used in concert to design and deliver lessons in which students use: 

• Writing to serve as a record of one’s thinking or as a learning, public, and personal communication tool. Students who write consider their audience and purpose, engage in various writing processes to address specific situations, support their thinking, and demonstrate understanding.
• Inquiry to uncover one’s own understanding; ask critical questions; and engage in thinking, learning, and discussion.
• Collaboration to engage in teamwork with shared responsibility; the sharing of ideas, information, and opinions; and formal and informal discussion. Students work together toward a common goal, develop positive interdependence, work in focused study groups, and support the learning of others through inquiry.
• Organization to manage time, thought, and materials in order to strategically and intentionally take responsibility for one’s own learning.
• Reading to strategically gain meaning, understanding, and knowledge from print and other media. Reading is purpose-driven and interactive. Students who read understand text structures; apply prior knowledge; make connections to other texts, self, and the world; make predictions and ask questions; and create visual images as they read.​​​​​​​

The 4 A’s^®​: Adopt, Adapt, Accelerate, Advocate^® (also known as AVID Digital Learning: The 4 A’s {Adopt, Adapt, Accelerate, Advocate^®; the 4 A’s^®}). The 4 A’s act as a lens through which educators consider the roles of teacher, student, and technology in the classroom environment to achieve learning outcomes. AVID’s 4 A’s framework is a holistic view of technology in classrooms and can be integrated with any other educational technology framework, providing educators an understanding of the role of technology within specific educational contexts. 

Academic Language and Literacy (ALL): Literacy and fluency in academic language collectively refer to an ability to access and engage in rigorous curriculum through the language specific to the discipline area or content.

Career Readiness: Having the knowledge, skills, and behaviors to find, secure, and maintain employment while adapting throughout a professional journey. The skills needed for career readiness include:

• Durable Skills: Skills that are less likely to become obsolete or outdated in the face of changing technologies, markets, and demands. They are often transferable across different domains and contexts and can help workers adapt to new situations and challenges.  *Personal and Workplace Success Skills Library: Resources for adult education, higher education, workforce development, and career and technical education programs.
• Technical Skills: Technical skills are the specialized knowledge and expertise required to perform specific tasks and use specific tools and programs in real-world situations.

Collaborative Structures: Strategies designed to support collaboration in which students effectively share information amongst peers by working in various group configurations to engage with subject matter (also known as structures for collaboration).

Collaborative Study Groups (CSGs): A structure by which students identify a specific question from a content area, collaborate to develop and deepen their understanding through Socratic inquiry, and apply their new learning in order to enhance classroom performance.

College Readiness: The state in which students can qualify for and succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing college courses leading to a degree without the need for remedial or developmental coursework (definition sourced from "Redefining College Readiness" by David T. Conley).

Costa’s Levels of Thinking: Levels of thinking and questioning that offer a framework for inquiry:

• Level 1: Gathering — “On the page” or “From the book”
• Level 2: Processing — “Between the lines” or “From the book and brain”
• Level 3: Applying — “Off the page” or “From the brain”

Critical Reading: The process of closely reading and interacting with a text to determine context, examine the meaning and author’s purpose, and make connections and interpretations to arrive at new understandings and new questions.

Family Engagement: A culture that ensures families are actively involved in helping all students meet college readiness requirements and are committed to building and sustaining a strong college and career readiness culture on site.

GROW: An acronym to represent a set of norms for a learning environment. GROW stands for: Get Ready to Learn, Review What You Know, Open Your Mind, Wonder and Ask.

Long-term English language learners (L-TELLs): Students who have been enrolled in U.S. schools for 4 or more years (many born in the United States), are stalled in progressing toward English proficiency, and are struggling academically.

Multilingual Learner (ML): A student who is developing proficiency in multiple languages and has been consistently exposed to them. This term can also refer to students who are known as English learners (EL), dual language learners, or long-term English learners. Multilingual learning is the process of teaching students who are regularly exposed to more than one language. For example, a student may be in a school where English is the primary language of instruction, but Spanish is their primary language at home. Multilingual learner proficiency levels are as follows:

• Entering: Students have minimal or no English proficiency. They may struggle to understand spoken or written English, relying primarily on their home language for communication. At this stage, students begin to recognize and respond to basic English words and phrases, often using visual cues or gestures to make meaning.
• Emerging/Developing: Students have a basic understanding of English and can communicate simple ideas, though their vocabulary and grammar are still limited. They may understand some classroom instructions and can express themselves in everyday situations with support, such as visual aids, scaffolding, or repetition. However, they still need significant assistance to fully participate in more complex academic tasks.
• Expanding/Bridging: Students have a growing command of English and can engage more independently in both social and academic settings. They can express and comprehend more complex ideas, participate in discussions, and write more accurately. While they may still make occasional errors, their language skills are becoming more fluent, and they are bridging the gap toward full proficiency in academic English.

Organizational Tool: A tool used to organize time, thought, and materials. This could be an analog or digital tool. Examples include agendas/planners, binders or eBinders, interactive notebooks, focused note-taking, etc.

• Agenda/Planner: An analog or digital calendar that engages students in time-management by proactively planning their activities and other important events. Agendas or planners can also be utilized for goal setting and checking in on progress toward short- and long-term goals.
• Binder/eBinder: A binder/eBinder is an analog or digital organizational system for materials where students can collect work, reflect on learning, and recollect their learning.
• Focused Note-Taking: A process of note-taking whereby students create, review, revise, interact with, and evaluate their notes for better retention of learning. The focused note-taking process can be summarized in five phases: Taking Notes, Processing Notes, Connecting Thinking, Summarizing and Reflecting on Learning, and Applying Learning.
• Interactive Notebook (INB): A physical or digital notebook containing evidence of a student’s learning. Interactive notebooks are characterized in History Alive! Interactive Student Notebook (1999) as the practice of entering input (information and note-taking) on the right-hand pages and output (processing of learning) on the left-hand pages. 

Philosophical Chairs: An inquiry-based strategy that is built on a prompt and to which contradictory positions exist; participants address these positions through deep, academic discourse in a structured, formal process.

Relational Capacity: The degree of trust and level of safety between members of a group.

Rigor: AVID defines rigor as using inquiry-based, collaborative strategies to challenge and engage students in content resulting in increasingly complex levels of understanding.

Scaffolding: In education, scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process. (Definition sourced from edglossary.org)

Scholar Groups (in AVID Excel): Collaborative learning groups where students engage in high-level academic discourse about a common, complex text and include the same metacognitive and inquiry process as tutorials with a specific focus on the development of academic language and appropriate use of reading strategies.

Socratic Seminar: A structured, collaborative dialogue, focusing on a common text or resource, which students have analyzed and toward which they have prepared questions to spur the discussion.

Student-Centered Instruction: A teaching strategy that shifts the focus of activity from teachers to students. Students actively engage in problem solving, inquiry, collaboration, and other strategies in order to engage in and process rigorous content.

Tool: A specific resource or technique used to facilitate the learning process. Tools can be digital or physical and are designed to support the implementation of AVID strategies. These include inquiry-based, collaborative structures that also support language, literacy, and organizational skill development.

Tutorials: A 10-step process held in a scholarly environment where students receive support in their academic classes and practice skills such as collaboration, communication, and critical thinking.

Tutorials with eTutors: Tutorials in which the students are together in class and the tutor (eTutor) is participating virtually using available video conferencing software.

Writing Process: The writing process, a systematic method involving prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing, aids in organizing thoughts, enhancing writing quality, and deepening content comprehension. By incorporating disciplinary literacy, it refines students' academic writing skills and strengthens effective, subject-specific communication, helping students engage with content like subject experts.

Certification Process: AVID maintains high-quality outcomes in part due to its implementation coaching and certification protocol, which guides Site Teams to build high-quality Elective and schoolwide systems and requires the submission of Site and Senior (if applicable) Data forms along with Elective Certification on an annual basis.

• Secondary Implementation Tool: The Secondary Implementation Tool helps schools successfully build the AVID Elective as the foundation of a strong AVID College and Career Readiness System, while also building schoolwide implementation over time. The Elementary Coaching and Certification Instrument (CCI) provides a systemic pathway to impact more students through the implementation of AVID on a campus. Use of these certification processes helps schools ensure high-quality implementation to the AVID College and Career Readiness Framework and plan for sustainable growth.

AVID National Demonstration School: A center of teaching and learning that also serves as a model for those interested in learning about the AVID College and Career Readiness Framework. AVID National Demonstration Schools clearly demonstrate an ongoing pursuit of excellence, both in the AVID Elective and AVID Schoolwide, to ensure college and career readiness for all AVID Elective students and improved academic performance for all students based on increased opportunities and support for success. This voluntary recognition process is separate from the Certification Continuum. National Demonstration Schools are also separate and distinct from the Schoolwide Certification level of Schoolwide Site of Distinction. One is not “higher” than the other. Requirements to become an AVID National Demonstration School, as well as eligibility requirements, are listed on the MyAVID National Demonstration School landing page. Note: Only middle and high schools are currently able to engage in the (re)validation process.

• Emerging Demonstration Sites: The AVID Demo Coach, AVID District Director, principal, and AVID Site Coordinator agree there is ample evidence the site is demonstrating AVID with fidelity according to criteria and guidelines and would be a prime example to share their implementation with others and begin the validation process.
• Continuing Demonstration Sites: These sites are currently listed as AVID National Demonstration Schools and have been validated at least once.
• Term of Validation: The length of time that a school is validated for (or re-validated) as an AVID National Demonstration School. A validation term spaces across 3 school years.
• School must meet criteria and guidelines and have support from AVID staff before engaging in the four steps of the (re)validation process.

• Step 1: Self-Assessment of Eligibility and Readiness: The principal, AVID Site Coordinator, and AVID District Director of the Emerging and Continuing AVID National Demonstration School begin the (re)validation process by collaborating to complete the Self-Assessment of Eligibility and Readiness and use the results to support the next steps.
• Step 2: Face-to-Face Coaching Visit to Verify Eligibility and Readiness: The Demo Coach, AVID Center representative, AVID District Director, site principal, and AVID Site Coordinator will conduct a site visit to verify Step 1: Self-Assessment of Eligibility and Readiness to determine next steps.
• Step 3: Digital Portfolio Submission: With support from the Demo Coach, schools will upload specific artifacts to the Digital Portfolio.
• Step 4: (Re)Validation Celebration: A Validation Team (the Demo Coach and an AVID Center representative) will be responsible for the culmination of the (re)validation journey. This team will review the Digital Portfolio submissions before meeting with the site.

AVID Schoolwide: A strong AVID system that transforms the Instruction, Systems, Leadership, and Culture of a school, ensuring college and career readiness for all AVID Elective/Excel Elective students and improved academic performance for all students based on increased opportunities.

AVID Schoolwide Domains:

• AVID Schoolwide Instruction: When th​e entire instructional staff utilizes AVID strategies, other best instructional practices, and 21st century tools to ensure college and career readiness for AVID Elective and AVID Excel Elective students and improved academic performance for all students.
• AVID Schoolwide Systems: When systems are in place that support governance, curriculum and instruction, data collection and analysis, professional learning, and student and parent outreach to ensure college and career readiness for AVID Elective and Excel Elective students and improved academic performance for all students.
• AVID Schoolwide Leadership: Sets the vision and the tone that promote college and career readiness and high expectations for all students in the school.
• AVID Schoolwide Culture: When the AVID philosophy progressively shifts beliefs and behaviors resulting in an increase of students meeting college and career readiness requirements.

Coaching: An inquiry-based approach used in collaboration by the District Director, principal, and school leadership team to transform the Instruction, Systems, Leadership, and Culture of a school to ensure a sustainable infrastructure for college and career readiness for all students.

College-Going Environment: A school climate in which college attendance and enrollment is evident, and students are actively guided by faculty and staff to meet college readiness requirements.

School Leadership Team (SLT): A team on campus that includes the principal, representation from the AVID Site Team, and other staff involved with initiatives that support the implementation of AVID schoolwide.

Stakeholders: AVID defines stakeholders as those students, staff, parents, families, and community members who have a vested interest in the school’s outcomes and in the academic success of its students.

Asynchronous Learning: A type of virtual learning experience that can occur not only in different locations but also at different times. For example, pre-recorded video, online discussions, small-group projects, and independent learning like course pre-work would all be considered forms of asynchronous learning.

AVID Ignite^®​​​​​​​: A 2-day virtual professional learning experience that fosters real-time interactions with facilitators and peers, focusing on the application of strategies to empower every student to unlock their potential and embrace a life of possibility. AVID Ignite delivers the same unparalleled content as an in-person event, but in a facilitated, engaging virtual format.

AVID Open Access^®​: A free, open educational resource designed to accelerate learning by providing K–12 educators with practical strategies, grab-and-go lessons, digital templates, and podcasts dedicated to themes that interest educators. The platform emphasizes student agency and academic tenacity, offering digital and analog resources to prepare students for a future of lifelong learning. Key features include:

• Teaching Strategies and Best Practices: Research-based strategies and resources to create inclusive, future-ready classrooms where students take ownership of their learning.
• Grab-and-Go Lessons: Easy-to-implement K–12 lessons that promote critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving.
• Digital Templates: Curated tools to simplify the integration of best teaching practices.
• Podcasts for Educators: Unpacking Education and Tech Talk for Teachers deliver expert insights on the latest trends, tools, and strategies in education.
• AVID Open Access also collaborates with ed tech partners, including MIT, Club for the Future founded by Blue Origin, Wonder Workshop, Microsoft MakeCode, and Minecraft, to provide high-quality, freely available resources for educators.

AVID Path to Schoolwide^®: A 2-day professional learning experience that fosters interactions with facilitators and peers, focusing on the application of strategies to empower every student to unlock their potential and embrace a life of possibility. AVID Path to Schoolwide delivers unparalleled content facilitated in an engaging format in regional and district settings.

AVID Professional Learning: Built around high-quality implementation strategies and designed to meet the diverse needs of educators, incorporating multiple learning styles. Ongoing professional learning is critical to supporting collective educator agency.

AVID Staff Developers: AVID-employed facilitators who provide highly effective face-to-face and virtual professional learning to adult learners using the AVID Professional Learning Practices (APLPs).

AVID Summer Institute™: A 3-day professional learning experience that fosters interactions with facilitators and peers, focusing on the application of strategies to empower every student to unlock their potential and embrace a life of possibility. AVID Summer Institute delivers unparalleled content facilitated in an engaging format. Summer Institute provides additional opportunities for Site Team planning, networking, and an inspirational General Session.

Blended Learning: High-quality, efficient instruction comprising a combination of face-to-face and online learning. Educators utilize the benefits and advantages of each option to best support learning objectives.

Breakout Room: A separate virtual space within an online meeting, professional learning session, or webinar, where participants can work in smaller groups. It provides an opportunity for focused discussions and collaboration, enhancing and deepening participants' learning.

Community of Practice: A group of educators, participating in AVID professional learning, who share similar roles, belief, and intention. A Community of Practice starts with AVID professional learning, led by AVID facilitators, and continues with opportunities for networking to further build collective educator agency beyond the initial professional learning experience.

Digital Badge: A virtual representation of a skill, achievement, or competency. It serves as a digital credential to demonstrate professional development. Digital badges contain metadata and are verifiable, ensuring the badge's authenticity and the issuer's credibility when shared in email signatures or on social media.

Digital Inking: Technology that digitally represents handwriting and drawing in its natural form and mimics the look of traditional ink. Typically, a digital ink system utilizes a special pen or stylus to directly record writing and drawing onto a digital device.

Districtwide Strategic Planning (DSP): Designed for district teams who want to enhance and refine their AVID College and Career Readiness System (ACRS) for all students districtwide. This four-part experience helps ensure that AVID supports the success of districts in achieving their strategic plan goals through infusing AVID into their district systems and infrastructures. During the sessions, district leadership will review policies and processes with an eye on ensuring equitable outcomes for all.

Educator Speakers: AVID educators from across the nation who share their true-life stories of how AVID has impacted them, their students, and their teaching practices. These speakers enter a contest to be selected and are featured at Summer Institute General Sessions.

eLearning: The delivery of educational content through digital devices like computers, tablets, and smartphones. Unlike traditional learning methods, eLearning enables individuals to access courses anytime, anywhere, making it a flexible and efficient approach to learning.

Foundational CoPs: A Foundational CoP is where an educator will begin their AVID professional learning journey and will experience aligned foundational strategies as they engage in robust content and network with other educators from across the nation. In subsequent years, educators will deepen their content knowledge and collaborate with colleagues through their professional learning journey in a Year 2+ CoP. This will strengthen their implementation of foundational strategies while introducing new AVID strategies to further enhance student engagement and positively impact learning outcomes.

Learning Journeys: A sequence of professional learning, beginning with a Foundational CoP, and expanding into Year 2+ CoPs based on role and site goals. Following the designed Learning Journeys for individuals and teams prepares sites to implement the AVID College and Career Readiness System effectively.

LMS (Learning Management System): The platform that houses AVID eLearning courses and resources used to create and deliver learning to participants.

Professional Learning Community (PLC):  A group of educators that meets regularly, shares expertise, and works collaboratively to promote professional growth, enhance teaching skills, and improve the academic performance of students. The term is also applied to staff who use small-group collaboration as a form of professional development or to help become sense-makers.

Semi-Synchronous Learning: A type of digital and online learning experience that provides live support from a facilitator with some tasks to be completed in a set period of time. Semi-synchronous learning may also include additional tasks with a more open-ended time frame for completion. This type of learning may follow a synchronous experience and allows for participants to go deeper and wider into content.

SI Pop-Up: A summer professional learning opportunity designed as a pilot for 2025. This program spans 2.5 days and includes 12 hours of Community of Practice (CoP) content, along with an inspiration component and dedicated Site Team time.

Site Team Meetings: Regular meetings held by the AVID Site Team to support and evaluate the AVID implementation at a site, create and monitor progress toward site goals, and drive schoolwide change by establishing effective teaching practices through professional learning and collaboration around access to rigor through the use of AVID strategies.  

Strategic Leadership for College and Career Readiness (SLCCR): The SLCCR CoP engages teams of three or more district- and school-based leadership members in creating a strong infrastructure to lead change to support college and career readiness for all students. 

Student Speakers: AVID students from across the nation who share their true-life stories of how AVID and its teachers have impacted them. These speakers enter a contest to be selected and are featured at Summer Institute General Sessions.

Synchronous Learning: A general term used to describe forms of education, instruction, and learning that occur at the same time, but not in the same place. The term is most commonly applied to various forms of televisual, digital, and online learning in which students learn from instructors, colleagues, or peers in real time. For example, educational videoconferences, interactive webinars, chat-based online discussions, and lectures that are broadcast at the same time they are delivered would all be considered forms of synchronous learning.

Each AVID Region is responsible for implementing and managing the AVID College and Career Readiness System in their respective schools and districts.

• Professional Learning: Regions offer training to educators in their area, equipping them with strategies to improve student readiness for college and career.
• Program Implementation: Regions oversee the implementation of the AVID system in schools, ensuring it aligns with AVID methodologies and standards.
• Support and Guidance: Regions provide ongoing support and guidance to schools and districts in their area, helping them to address challenges and improve their AVID programs.
• Networking Opportunities: Regions facilitate connections between AVID schools, allowing them to share best practices and learn from each other.
• Advocacy: Regions advocate for policies and funding that support college and career readiness.

Central Eastern Region: The mission of the Central Eastern Region is to support the implementation and fidelity of the AVID system and through quality support, growth initiatives, and professional development.

Central Eastern Area Teams: Florida, MASS-VI, Northeast, Southern Coastal, Heartland, Upper Midwest, Central/East/North Texas, South/West Texas

Mountain Pacific Region: The mission of the Mountain Pacific Region is to support the implementation and fidelity of the AVID system through quality support, growth initiatives, and professional development.

Mountain Pacific Area Teams: Desert Southwest, Pacific Rim, Mountain West, NorCal Central, SoCal 9 and 10, SoCal 8 and 11.

Venue and Logistics Terms

Breakout Session: Smaller sessions within a larger conference or meeting. Within AVID, these would be considered CoP Sessions or Site Team time.

Room Block: A set of reserved hotel rooms for event attendees, often at a negotiated rate. AVID partners with a third-party housing bureau, Maritz, for our SI and NatCon room blocks.

Budget and Financial Terms

Cut-Off Date: Designated date when the facility will release a block of sleeping rooms to the public. The date is typically 3 to 4 weeks before the event.

Food and Beverage Terms

Dietary Restrictions: Specific attendee food needs, such as vegan, gluten-free, or nut-free options.

Planning Tools and Techniques

Program of Events or Schedule of Events: An outline of the event.

Schedule at a Glance (SAG): A brief overview of the functions of an event, often organized in a spreadsheet (in comparison, a program of events or schedule of events includes more details).