AVID Site Team Overview and Resources
AVID Site Teams engage in high-quality, relevant professional learning, networking, and coaching to support implementation, acceleration, and sustainability of their AVID College and Career Readiness System. Teams use the Continuous Improvement Cycle (Plan, Do, Study, Act) to set data-driven goals, design and execute action plans, and monitor their progress over the course of a school year.
While the work of the Site Team is yearlong and continuous, summer professional learning is an opportunity for Site Teams to have focused collaboration time to evaluate the impacts of their plans from the previous school year, share and integrate new learning, and develop their plans for the upcoming school year. No matter what your school timeline looks like, high-impact Site Teams create time to regularly engage in their work.
Whether your team is attending summer professional learning, or you are creating your own dedicated work time, AVID provides a portal of resources to support the ongoing, year-round work of Site Teams. To understand more about the work of the Site Team, please watch this informational video.
District Directors should ensure that sites understand the need for highly effective Site Teams and how they drive program implementation.
Site Team Portal and Suite of Resources
The AVID Site Team Portal is your go-to resource to plan, implement, and grow the AVID College and Career Readiness System at your school. The portal is divided into four main sections: Summer Learning, Year-Long Resources, Site Team Resources, and AVID College and Career Readiness Framework. As new resources are developed and updated, those will be marked with a ⭐ to indicate an update.
Included in the suite of resources is a Site Team Goals template that Site Coordinators/Site leaders can use to guide their teams through the Continuous Improvement Cycle. The template is provided to support teams in their planning, execution, and implementation, but if sites have a different template or preferred system for goal setting, they are free to use their own documents. Sample Site Team Goals for both elementary and secondary are also provided as a resource.
It is best practice for District Directors to create awareness of the portal and resources available to the sites. District Directors can align their coaching and support to resources in the portal for easier access.
Meeting the Needs of Your Site: Beginning in the Summer
The portal was created so that sites can engage with Site Team materials at their point of need rather than following a one-size-fits-all model of engagement. The Summer Learning section is where sites can access materials that will set the foundation for effective Site Teams and for initiating the planning process. The materials have been created to support face-to-face or virtual Site Team meetings. Sites will need to designate a time to meet in the summer or follow the designated schedule (Summer Institute only) to engage with the materials.
The materials in the Summer Learning section are designed to be facilitated by Site Coordinators/Site leadership. The learning experience provides the opportunity for differentiation determined by where each site is in the goal-setting process. These two intentional design elements empower sites to take ownership of their goal-setting process regardless of their entry points (Creating a New Goal, Refining an Existing Goal, or Ensuring the Sustainability of an Achieved Goal) from the beginning.
Ideally, a Site Team’s learning experience will include:
- Setting the Foundation — Common Content: How Site Teams Leverage Collective Educator Agency to Achieve Student Outcomes
- New Site Teams start here to establish a foundation for the role and work of the Site Team.
- Experienced Site Teams may choose whether to start with the foundation. Site Teams that attended Summer Institute in 2023 may have already experienced this content. However, if participants are all new to the Site Team, the Site Coordinator/Site leaders may want to dedicate time to working through the content prior to the Site Team goal work. Sites may also decide to start with the self-assessment in the foundational materials to help launch them into the appropriate goal-setting path.
- Choose Your Own Adventure – Choose a Differentiated Path for Each Goal You Are Creating
- Path 1 | Creating a New Goal: Choose this path if you are in Year 1 of site implementation or if your site is looking at a new set of outcomes.
- Path 2 | Refining an Existing Goal: It may take a site several years to reach the desired outcomes, thus needing to refine the goal. If a goal falls under that thinking, sites will follow this path.
- Path 3 | Ensuring Sustainability for an Achieved Goal: Once desired outcomes are reached, sites need to ensure that all pieces are in place to sustain efforts. This is also an appropriate path for sites that come to the summer learning experience with the site goals for the upcoming year already developed. The gap analysis will provide you with an opportunity to expand your thinking around the goals already developed.
The Site leader(s) and/or Site Coordinator(s) will use their data and site plan to determine the best fit. This can be done prior to summer.
A District Director serves as a guide and coach for added support to the site leadership. District Directors may also support in ensuring that site leadership is aware of the site-based facilitation and that they have identified support that may be needed. District Directors inform and coach sites in making the decision about the appropriate path.
Experience Logistics
Districts/sites have a variety of options for ensuring that their professional learning needs are met. Regardless of the option you choose, you have access to high-quality materials via the Site Team Portal to guide your experience.
Summer Institute
Summer Institute participants will have scheduled time on Day 1 and Day 2 dedicated to Site Teams. During this time, teams will use the AVID Site Team Portal and AVID Site Team In-Person Training Materials to guide their work. The materials housed in the section are noted within the “Meeting the Needs of Your Site: Beginning in the Summer” section above. To engage fully in this experience, each Site Team needs to be prepared to lead their team/table through the work while the District Director supports. Each team needs to have access to laptops to navigate through the portal. It will be important to note that your assigned space for Site Teams at Summer Institute may have different districts and Site Teams in the room, so exclusive use of the in-room technology by your team/district may not be available. Regional teams are intentional about assigning space to ensure that your district/team has the best experience.
AVID Ignite
Districts that attend AVID Ignite are encouraged to create a designated time for Site Teams to engage in the Continuous Improvement Cycle. This could be before educators attend AVID Ignite, during the same week, or some time following their professional learning experience. The AVID Site Team Portal and Summer Learning Modules are available to support District Directors and Site Coordinators in the development of goals and action steps for the upcoming school year. A description of these materials is included in the “Meeting the Needs of Your Site: Beginning in the Summer” section above. The work includes options for both in-person and virtual experiences.
Other District-Supported Site Team Work (Path/District Events)
The Site Team Portal and Summer Learning Modules are also available to districts that host in-district events, such as a Path, summer Site Team retreat, or other district-facilitated events. In collaboration with Site Coordinators, District Directors/Site leaders should identify the format for the work (in-person or virtual) and the Summer Learning modules that best support where they are in the Continuous Improvement Cycle. Site Teams are encouraged to have a dedicated time between the end of the school year and the beginning of the upcoming school year, regardless of attendance at AVID-Center hosted summer professional learning, to analyze progress and create or refine goals and action plans for the upcoming school year.
District Directors support sites attending Summer Institute by communicating the need and empowering sites to lead their work. For teams that attend AVID Ignite or host district events, the District Director should support the district/sites in ensuring that time is allocated for goal setting. In all experience options, the District Director needs to be familiar with the Site Team Portal content, materials, and differentiated paths to support sites’ unique experiences through the work.
Meeting the Needs of Your Site: Year-Long Learning
Through the AVID Site Team Portal, sites will continue to have access to a suite of resources designed to provide Site Teams with an intentional year-long experience. The Year-Long Learning section of the portal includes Site Team modules that support sites in using the Continuous Improvement Cycle to guide the development, monitoring, and refining of site goals throughout the year. The Site Team meeting modules align with the Site Team Months at a Glance and are designed for use during the regularly scheduled Site Team meetings. These modules can be facilitated by District Directors, Site Coordinators, Site Leaders, or Site Team members. It is important to remember that each module is focused on a phase in the Continuous Improvement Cycle, yet provides teams the ability to operationalize the work to drive improvement. As you are engaging in the year-long work, let the team’s needs determine the module sequence and not the order in which they are listed.
- Meeting Module (90 minutes): Plan | Setting the Site Goals
- Meeting Module (60 minutes): Do | Continuous Improvement Cycle
- Meeting Module (60 minutes): Study | Continuous Improvement Cycle
- Meeting Module (60 minutes): Act | Continuous Improvement Cycle
- Meeting Module (60 minutes): Site Teams – Continuous Improvement Cycle: Refining Goals to Ensure Student Outcomes
District Directors may utilize materials in districtwide meetings, supporting site-based leadership in aligning this work to school improvement goals, and program coaching and monitoring.
Communication and Support
Please see the Summer Institute and AVID Ignite landing pages for specific event details and logistics.
All individuals connected to the Site Team on campus may attend sessions to prepare for the kickoff of the year-long Site Team work. During this session, we will go over navigation of the portal, how to determine the best session for your Site Team as you begin your summer work, and how to engage with the site year-long. See the Site Team Q&A sessions listed below: