Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic 

Newberg schools recruiting and training tutors for its still-growing AVID program

The Newberg School District is in the second year of installing the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program at its high school and both middle schools, having added sections for 10th grade students this fall.

One of the unique aspects of AVID is the community-based tutoring component, so as the program grows to include juniors and seniors over the next two years, the need for tutors will continue to rise as well.

According to district director of teaching and learning Stafford Boyd, the bulk of those tutors will come from George Fox University, but the district is also hoping to attract adults from the community in hopes of building a strong corps of volunteers.

The district partnered with George Fox to hold a one-day training for its students on the school’s annual Serve Day last month, but also held a training session open to community members Friday and will host another in January prior to the start of the second semester.

“Our target to be fully operational with AVID tutors is 35 volunteers or in that range,” Boyd said. “As we move forward, we’re going to continue to build our partnerships and bring community members in.”

AVID consultant Pat Louderback, who led the training session last week, said recruiting tutors is a challenge for any school, but especially for rural ones, and notes that Newberg should count itself lucky for having a university in its back yard.

The first step to recruiting volunteers, according to Louderback and Boyd, is establishing that being an AVID tutor barely resembles a traditional tutor, which is what most people believe schools want.

Instead of having expertise in one or a few subjects and working with one student at a time, AVID tutors work with a small group (ideally seven) students to help them work through what’s known as the AVID tutorial.

Over the course of an hour, each student in the group will present a question, generated from any of their classes, about which they are confused or need help.

Students in the group both take notes and ask the lead student questions that will help them break down and solve the problem on their own, while the tutor observes and provides guidance. There are numerous videos of AVID tutorials online at YouTube.

“Really, the tutor is more of a facilitator,” Louderback said. “They’re there to help the student to build up their answer constructivist style and the rest of the group helps in that process because the kids are in similar classes and they can share notes and take out information and help each other that way.”

Because AVID is designed specifically to give students the skills they need to reach and succeed in college – such as utilizing Cornell Notes, study strategies and critical reading strategies -- tutors also serve as role models. Louderback said that college students can be especially effective in this way.

“Oftentimes the AVID student is seeing one of the only people that they know that’s in college by way of their tutor,” Louderback said.

Boyd said Newberg is asking volunteers to commit to just one or two hours per week, so it may not be as hard for even working adults to volunteer if they have flexible or non-traditional schedules.

Midway through last year, as the district was getting the program off the ground with sections for students in grades six through nine, it relied primarily on college-bound juniors and seniors at the high school to serve as AVID tutors, which is a normal practice for districts new to AVID, according to Louderback.

Boyd said that worked out quite well and, in fact, most of the 15 volunteers who attended last week’s training session were current NHS students, who can earn some college credit for serving as AVID tutors.

“It provides a lot of leadership experience because teaching other people is a good way to teach yourself,” junior Victoria Guarnaccia said. “It’s going to be good for the future.”

Senior Amanda said she found the AVID approach, especially that tutors are directed not to give students the answers and aren’t required to even know them, to be refreshing, noting it helped ease any anxiety she had signing up.

“Because the information is already there, it’s just unlocking the right doors to get them to it,” Guarnaccia added. “I think anybody can do that.”

Most added that getting college credit or a good item for their college applications were ancillary reasons for signing up.

“I was that kid that needed tutoring and I never had the opportunity to do it, so when they asked me to do it, I automatically said yes,” senior R.J. Young said. “I want to teach kids and get to know a lot of younger people in the school.”

Senior Israel Pintor said he was mostly motivated to try tutoring because he just likes helping people and it sounded fun, but noted that it could have a big social impact, as well.

“The lower classes always have a problem being afraid of the upper classes, but having someone they know they can count on, that could change an entire community for the high school if that started becoming what you do,” Pintor said. “That could be an amazing transformation.”