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At any other high school, junior Nicole Holdren would probably have been an average student. With a B-minus average in her freshman year at Waialua Intermediate and High School, she was at risk of falling through the cracks and probably wouldn’t have had the grades to get into a college.

But two years later, as a junior, she now boasts a B-plus and is aiming for a four-year degree.

Holdren attributes the dramatic difference in her grades to , a national program designed to give a little extra motivation to “middle achievers” like her.

“They really try to inspire and push us,” she said of the AVID teachers and counselors.

AVID, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination, introduces mediocre students to the study strategies they need to do well in high school and succeed in college. Low achieving students often enroll in special programs designed to help keep them afloat. Gifted students have access to additional resources to excel. Often left out are the students in the middle.

It’s not an honors or Advanced Placement course, but it does challenge kids to take those more challenging courses and gives them a leg up on their college applications.

And it improves high school graduation rates in the process. Students have to apply to participate. Six years after its first appearance in Hawaii, AVID is already serving about .

Students like AVID because it not only teaches them that a four-year degree is possible, but it also gives them the study skills they need to get there. Schools like the program because even though it costs about $40,000 to implement in the first year, it doesn’t cost a lot to maintain and it yields big results.

New And Voluntary

Campbell High School in Ewa Beach became the first Hawaii school to pilot AVID in 2004, according to the Hawaii Department of Education. The program was so successful that Campbell became a nationally certified demonstration site for the program. Although originally aimed at high schoolers, educators have since introduced the program into middle and elementary schools, too.

It now serves more than 16,500 students at 108 of the state’s 255 public schools, who all chose to be a part of the program:

• 23 high schools
• 22 middle schools
• Nine multi-level schools (e.g. combined intermediate and high)
• 53 elementary schools

Schools use their regular funds, combined with the occasional federal or private grant, to pay for AVID services and faculty.

“The department does not actively promote the program to schools,” said Adele Wada, the GEAR UP specialist for the Hawaii Department of Education. “Schools decide if AVID is a program that fits within the school.”

Focusing On The Middle

“It was created to help students who might not necessarily be in the culture of going to a four-year university or college,” said Ryan Ishimoto, AVID co-coordinator at Waialua Intermediate and High School. “They’re on the fence academically — not scoring really high, and not scoring really low. We’re looking at the students who would need some help to go and pursue a four-year degree. “

Certified AVID schools identify students in each grade level who fall into the “academic middle” and give those students the opportunity to participate in an elective class led by a specially trained teacher. Ideally, the students are identified early and remain together with the same teacher through graduation. At Waialua, for example, middle achievers are identified in seventh grade. In eighth grade, they begin taking one AVID course per semester with their instructor.

High schools begin their AVID students in ninth grade. Although elementary schools don’t separate students off into AVID sections, some have begun introducing AVID strategies to entire grade levels as early as fourth grade.

Enhancing Curriculum

The AVID courses are designed not to compete with, but to complement what students are learning in their other classes. AVID teachers are regular teachers who have simply been through a weeklong training on the mainland and teach a designated AVID course in addition to their regular classes. They introduce their AVID students to study strategies like and , which help sharpen students’ critical thinking skills.

“AVID is not a totally different curriculum that you’re bringing into the school,” explained Ishimoto. “It’s really just strategies that complement the regular curriculum — ways students can learn to attack the curriculum.”

One of the students’ standing assignments is to take Cornell-style notes in each of their other classes on special tutorial worksheets. They are expected to write at least one thoughtful question and summarize their notes before submitting them to their AVID teacher.

The teacher reviews the worksheets, then returns them to the 20 or so AVID students so they can gather into groups by subject area and help one another with the most challenging concepts in their classes.

On a Thursday morning, AVID classmates Kilen Iona and Nicole Holdren worked quietly together in a corner of their classroom discussing the significance of a cut-and-paste poem they were assigned to read for an English class.

“In this class, we’re like a family and we really feed off each other and help each other,” Iona said.

Because it actively fosters such symbiotic relationships, the program has given Holdren the confidence to ask her classmates, tutors and teachers for help when she needs it. The special courses have also taught her how to be an organized student, she explained, and how to keep track of her notes. As a result, Holdren’s GPA has improved from a 2.7 her freshman year to a 3.3 her junior year.

“AVID is giving me the strategies to succeed in high school,” she said.

The strategies are so effective that Waialua Intermediate and High School now requires all of its students to take a “transition” course in both seventh and ninth grades that introduces them to AVID skills.

Equipping for Success

Not only are the students learning effective study techniques, but they’re also getting hands-on training for writing resumes, looking for and applying to colleges. AVID teachers invite alumni and other guests to speak to the kids about what college and various careers are really like.

Iona said AVID has made her consider college more seriously than she would have otherwise.

Last quarter, AVID teacher Mark Nakamura invited counselors to his 11th-grade class once a week to discuss the importance of values with his students.

This quarter, they are talking about going away to college.

“We hope by doing this first that the kids will be more aware of what they really want,” Nakamura said.

Changing Attitudes

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits to AVID is that it changes students’ attitudes toward school and in some cases even keeps them in.

In two and a half years since they began AVID together, not a single one of Nakamura’s kids has dropped out. Ishimoto said no AVID kids have dropped out of the Waialua program since it began in 2006.

Iona said she learned that a four-year degree wasn’t reserved for other, smarter kids. By applying herself, she could earn one, too.

“AVID has really helped broaden my mind,” she explained.

Iona and her classmates will be Waialua’s first AVID graduates in 2012. If Campbell’s success rate is any indication, the kids will do just fine.

So far, 100 percent of Campbell High School’s AVID students have graduated, said AVID counselor Nellwyne Young. More than 95 percent went on to college.

“It’s made a big difference in our college-going culture,” Young said.

“I guess you can say AVID does a variety of things,” said Ishimoto, who is also Waialua’s college and career counselor. “It’s giving (students) skills, nurturing them, allowing them exposure and experiences which will, we hope, in the end give them the ability to go on and be successful in college and careers.”