Program Makes College a Goal, Not Just a Dream

It is nothing new for Newport Harbor High School graduates to go to college. The school offers an array of college preparatory courses and is home to cutting-edge programs for the academically gifted.

But in the last year, the school has been setting its educational sights on students for whom attending college has been more of a dream than a goal.

From students in the vast middle plains of education--those neither excelling nor failing--Newport Harbor’s AVID program hopes to bring 120 into the college-oriented culture of the larger school population.

The program’s acronym stands for Achievement via Individual Determination. Based in San Diego and developed by a teacher 18 years ago, AVID has become one of the most popular methods in the state for reaching bright students whose average grades and unfamiliarity with applications and standardized tests often keep them from attending college.

It boasts a 93% success rate for students finishing high school and going on to a four-year college, and last February it was hailed by President Clinton as a national model for his High Hopes for College Program.

“Most of the students come from families where college is not a tradition, so they don’t even have that in their thinking,” said Sally Arellanas, Orange County coordinator for the program.

The program has a built-in success factor: It works only with capable students who are motivated to succeed. Students who are not enthusiastic about going to college and who do not want to stick to its work requirements generally are not accepted.

About 530 schools in California have adopted the program, including 49 middle and high schools in 20 Los Angeles County school districts.

The students, who generally make low Bs and high Cs before entering the program, promise to take challenging courses; by their junior year, they must be doing at least two hours of homework nightly. Students turn in notebooks for inspection weekly and attend regular tutorial sessions led by college students.

Parents promise to check their children’s homework every night for four years and are asked to attend college application workshops.

Also key to the program is providing students with information about scholarships and grants.

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In Newport Harbor’s freshman AVID class, most students said that until they entered the program, they believed college was economically out of reach for them.

“If I didn’t know there were so many different ways to pay off college, I wouldn’t even think about it,” said Kristen Bishop, 14. “I would’ve graduated from high school, got a job and maybe four years later I’d go to [community college] and get a degree.”

With their money worries addressed head-on, the students say that they are free to focus on the academic aspects of the program. Believing that they are intelligent enough to succeed is one of the immediate hurdles they face, many students said.

“Sometimes I look at myself and I think I’m dumb--even though I make good grades. AVID reminds you not to quit,” said Luis Perez, 15. Other students nodded in agreement.

Julio Perez, a junior at UC Irvine, participated in the program at Loara High School in Anaheim.

“My parents are immigrants--my father has an elementary [school] education,” Perez said. Since he was a little boy, it has been his responsibility to translate for his family, write out bills and help them negotiate the American bureaucracy.

When a teacher from Loara visited him at junior high school and asked if he wanted to go to college, it was the first time anyone had ever spoken of his dream out loud. Special classes taught him the tools of being a good student: how to take notes and how to study for tests.

By the time he was a senior, Perez, now 20, was accepted by UC Berkeley and Cal State Fullerton in addition to Irvine. He turned down Berkeley to remain close to home.

He returns to Loara with other UC Irvine students twice a week to tutor the freshman AVID class.

“This program has given me so much that I will always feel it is my responsibility to give back,” Perez said. “Especially to be a role model for my family and my community, to help them see what they can achieve.”