Mary Padden

The Avid Program and Teacher Collaboration: How Avid Fosters a Caring Environment and the Factors That Limit It Mary Padden

In recent years, there have been countless initiatives and programs meant to improve the educational system in the U. S. However, the emphasis on testing forces teachers to teach to a test and limits their ability to authentically care for students. Advancement Via Individual Determination, AVID, is one of the various policies being implemented to reform K-12 public schools. AVID is a privately run, independent organization that collaborates with school districts and schools to increase academic achievement. One of the many ways the program is designed to do this is through an emphasis on teacher collaboration. In this book, I examine the AVID program and how it fosters a caring environment, looking specifically at teacher collaboration in three Southern California high schools. What limits teacher collaboration and what do these limitations suggest about the possibility of caring in today's schools? This research should illuminate the importance of caring in schools and should be useful to school boards, teachers, parents, administrators, policymakers, and representatives from the AVID program.