The new College and Career Readiness course seems familiar to the students in San Marin’s Advancement Via Individual Determination class. As students and teachers in the AVID program have noticed overlaps between the two classes, there has been a debate over whether or not they are too similar.
Both of the classes’ main goal is to help students get to college. Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, however, takes smaller steps within each year to fulfill that goal, whereas College and Career Readiness, or CCR, is a semester-long course that has follow ups with its students after the one semester to see what their progress has been, according to students.
“They both help out. Career wise, that’s where they intertwine,” freshmen Heidy Torres said, who is in both AVID and CCR.
CCR is designed to help freshmen figure out what career path they want to take in life, how to map it out, and how to stay on track. Conversely, AVID is a four year program that walks students through high school. One of the projects that the CCR class focuses on is researching careers the student might be interested in, while AVID students research colleges that are linked to the field of work they might be interested in. AVID is geared towards students who are going to be first generation college students. For those who are not in AVID, CCR helps them create a base to get jobs and to apply those skills to their daily lives. CCR will assist students find a direction or career they want to work in and how they might go about to obtain their goals.
“There are areas of overlap between CCR and AVID, but the structures are quite different,” said freshman AVID teacher Jeffrey Moore.
The classes are similar in how they will benefit the students, especially the ones who are not in AVID who won’t be learning how to build a résumé in any other class. Both programs teach students how to build a résumé, look for jobs, set goals, and reach them.
“While there is some overlap in curriculum, there is very little overlap in students who take AVID and CCR” said CCR teacher Linda Miller.
The freshman AVID class consists of 32 students and 16 are in CCR each semester. Some students believe CCR will negatively impact the students who are in AVID by having them learn the same material.
“It makes you not into the class since you have two classes that are similar,” sophomore AVID student Lucia Cayllahua said.
A solution to the overlap could be to have AVID as a cohort and having a group of AVID students taking CCR all at one time rather than in two classes.
“Yes, having a cohort class could be possible but it would be a lot of work to figure out how it would function,” Moore said.
Students enrolled in both classes will learn many of the same themes and concepts AVID teaches. They will receive support from two separate classes, strengthening the student’s progress and understanding on how college works, as well as a broader perspective on where students want to go into for their careers after taking this class.
“Both classes have a friendly environment that pushes students to do their best even when they fall,” Torres said.
