In danger: Help that works

Tiffany Brown

Students take part in a medical terminology class last month at Rancho High School, one of 32 secondary schools in Clark County where some students get extra help in the Advancement Via Individualized Determination program. Nationally, 98 percent of AVID students graduate.

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Last month, Rancho High School Principal Robert Chesto explained to a crowd of about 250 parents that he must cut the school’s budget because of the state’s deepening financial crisis.

Tell me what to cut and what to spare, Chesto said.

Some parents wondered why high school sports and extracurricular programs were up for consideration. Older students are already being shortchanged, they told Chesto.

Schools should instead take money away from the lower grades, some parents said.

But Chesto disagreed.

“I don’t think we can ever put enough money toward those students,” Chesto said. “Either we fund it correctly at the beginning, or it ends up costing us more later. My fear is we’re going down an irreversible road, and this community is going to be paying the price for years and years.”

That’s the dilemma of the school budget debate. With funding shrinking, where will the Clark County School District’s dollars and efforts have the biggest effect?

Some distressing research suggests that if students aren’t reading at grade level by the end of third grade, there’s only a 20 percent chance they will ever catch up to their peers.

It’s strong evidence to support spending more money on early intervention. A good foundation in the primary grades will make more successful middle and high schools, the argument goes.

Yet that doesn’t remove the district’s responsibility to students in the upper grades.

Consider the experience of Bianca Ferraro, who four years ago was an eighth grader at what was then West-Edison Middle School.

The school had the lowest test scores in the state. The troubles there would prompt the district to reconstitute West, bringing in an entirely new staff and rebuilding the school’s programs from the ground up.

Her time at West “didn’t exactly prepare me for high school,” said Ferraro, now a senior earning top grades in Rancho’s medical academy.

So what made the difference for Ferraro?

A program for middle and high school students called AVID, or Advancement Via Individualized Determination. Created by a San Diego teacher in the early 1980s, the program teaches students time management and study skills and provides intensive mentoring and tutoring.

Clark County started with nine AVID high schools in 2004. This year, there are AVID programs at 32 middle and high schools serving about 2,500 students.

The cost is high. The district spends $2.75 million in state and federal dollars on the program, which includes $300,000 to send staff to AVID’s mandatory out-of-state training sessions.

Nationally, 98 percent of AVID students graduate, with 75 percent accepted to four-year colleges. In June, the first class of Clark County students to complete four years with AVID graduated, with 76 percent accepted to college, according to the district.

The most successful initiatives are often the most expensive. And in these times, that’s enough to land even the best program on the endangered list.

For now, there’s no plan to eliminate AVID, but it will likely be scaled back.

“I don’t see where we have any choice,” said Jhone Ebert, assistant superintendent of curriculum and professional development for the district. “It’s incredibly upsetting and frustrating, because this is something we know works.”

Without AVID, Ferraro wouldn’t be planning a future that includes college and medical school.

“I needed the extra help,” she said. “I’m lucky I got it.”

Indeed, Ferraro’s luck extends beyond being one of the relatively few students chosen for AVID. She was also lucky enough to come along while the district could still afford it.