How AVID Helps Students, Part I

2025-12-03

If you could learn how to learn better or, if you have kids in school, help them unlock proven strategies to ensure they get the most out of school, would you want to hear more about that? Here on the DCSD Notebook podcast from the top-scoring school district in the Denver area, we’re going to devote the next three episodes to a deep dive into the AVID program. In this episode, we’re going to start at the 10,000-foot level and learn what Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, is. DCSD’s co-director of the program, Gordon Mosher, who’s going to tell us the why, the how and the what of this program which can literally change the course of a student’s...

If you could learn how to learn better or, if you have kids in school, help them unlock proven strategies to ensure they get the most out of school, would you want to hear more about that?

Here on the DCSD Notebook podcast from the top-scoring school district in the Denver area, we’re going to devote the next three episodes to a deep dive into the AVID program.

In this episode, we’re going to start at the 10,000-foot level and learn what Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, is. DCSD’s co-director of the program, Gordon Mosher, who’s going to tell us the why, the how and the what of this program which can literally change the course of a student’s life – from someone who does OK but could achieve so much more if they were equipped, challenged and guided to embrace their potential.

In our next episode, we’ll drill down a little deeper and have a conversation with three principals in Parker who can tell us what AVID looks like at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

Then, in the third episode, we’re going to hear from DCSD graduates who went through the AVID program and can tell us how it helped them go forward into college and careers with confidence.

Guest this week:

Gordon Mosher III, executive director of schools for Choice Programming and DCSD co-director of AVID

Resources

AVID homepage
The AVID College and Career Readiness Framework
AVID National data
AVID in Colorado data

Current AVID Schools in DCSD:
- Legend High School
- Ponderosa High School
- VALE High School
- Cresthill Middle School
- Sagewood Middle School
- Franktown Elementary School
- Frontier Valley Elementary School
Glossary for this episode
- AVID: Advancement Via Individual Determination
- Metacognition: According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: awareness or analysis of one's own learning or thinking processes.
- WICOR: Acronym for AVID teaching and learning strategies which stands for Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, Reading