"PROVEN ACHIEVEMENT. LIFELONG ADVANTAGE."

AVID came to SMS in 2006 and through the district and community’s (Glendora Education Foundation) support, and the AVID site team’s hard work, AVID has positively influenced the entire school community.  AVID’s WICOR strategies are a part of our school-wide culture; this year the entire staff has focused on collaboration and inquiry strategies and ways that AVID strategies can be the way to Common Core success.  The students at SMS use writing as a learning tool; engage in thinking, learning, and discussion; collaborate through Philosophical Chairs and Socratic Seminars; manage materials through the use of a three-ring binder with dividers and a student agenda for recording assignments; and strategically gain meaning, understanding, and knowledge from reading materials.

Our site team consists of a cross-section of our staff and includes content-area teachers from every area.  The team includes a counselor, assistant principal, and principal and we work collaboratively with the Glendora Unified School District’s AVID liaison and the other AVID sites.  The site team meets every other month to discuss the AVID Site Team Plan and to provide leadership to the SMS staff. Currently, we have three AVID elective teachers, one in each grade 6-8, and all sections are fully enrolled.  Six college students are hired to facilitate in-class tutorials and after school tutoring.

Our school has 872 students and is made up of 54 % Hispanic and 34% Anglo (January, 2016).  We are a targeted-assistance Title 1 school with 41% of the school population receiving free and reduced lunch. AVID has provided immeasurable opportunities for our students to succeed and excel at Sandburg.