News from the Santa Barbara School Districts

Santa Barbara City College/Alta Vista Middle College Information Meetings

Santa Barbara City College/Alta Vista Middle College allows students to complete their high school coursework and earn their diplomas while simultaneously taking courses at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC). Middle College is an innovative collaboration of Independent Study and SBCC coursework designed to challenge and support students as they transition into college. Students who would benefit from the variety and challenge of SBCC classes and the supportive nature of the one-on-one teaching component are encouraged to attend an information meeting to learn more about how to get involved.

Upcoming Middle College information meetings will be held at 6:00 p.m. on the following Tuesday evenings on the SBCC Campus, Room EBS 102: April 12, April 26, and May 10. To reserve your space at an upcoming meeting, please call Regina Freking at 897-3561.

Night of String Music

NIGHT OF STRING MUSIC to showcase parcel tax dollars at work The districts’ elementary schools, Santa Barbara Junior High, La Cumbre Junior High, and Santa Barbara High School invite you to a NIGHT OF STRING MUSIC, a free concert, on Thursday, April 14, at 7:00 p.m. in the La Cumbre Junior High Auditorium. This concert will feature string players from all district elementary schools and the orchestra students from Santa Barbara Junior High, LaCumbre Junior High, and Santa Barbara High School.

This is an opportunity for you to see your Measure H and Measure I parcel tax dollars hard at work and support the creative talents of our students!

Dos Pueblos High School Student Art Show

Every year Dos Pueblos High School exhibits one work of art from every student who is enrolled in an art class. Additionally, the Art Department honors and showcases its young artists who have won art contests and scholarships during the year. This year, the show will be on Thursday, April 28, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the school’s cafeteria.

Student Art Show Opens This Week at San Marcos High

The fifth annual San Marcos High School Student Art Show opening reception is this Friday, April 8, from 4:00-6:00 p.m. in the Royal Art Gallery (cafeteria). Hundreds of works will be displayed through Friday, April 15.

Class of 2011 AVID Senior Celebration

AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination), a non-profit college readiness system implemented by the Santa Barbara School Districts five years ago is celebrating the current class of 2011 and its achievements on Monday, April 18 at the Majorie Luke Theater (located at Santa Barbara Junior High) from 5:00–6:30 p,m.

Santa Barbara School Districts’ Board Member Monique Limon, will be the keynote speaker. Seniors form Dos Pueblos, San Marcos, and Santa Barbara high schools will be present to celebrate their stellar academic achievements and their own futures as a many of them will go on to four-year colleges and universities.

The Santa Barbara Jazz Combo will be providing entertainment and the AVID Class of 2012 (this year’s juniors) will serve as hosts as well as providing refreshments. The purpose of the celebration is to recognize the AVID students’ academic work.

About AVID

AVID is a non-profit, proven college readiness system that works to close the achievement gap in our secondary schools. Today, AVID is implemented in approximately 4,500 schools in 47 states, the District of Columbia and 16 countries/territories; AVID serves more than 400,000 students in grades 4-12, as well as students in 14 post-secondary institutions. The AVID College Readiness System transforms a school’s academic culture to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges and succeed in postsecondary education and training. Although AVID serves all students, it focuses on the least served students in the academic middle. The formula is simple – raise expectations and provide support. AVID students are enrolled in a school’s toughest classes, such as Advanced Placement, and receive support in an academic elective class called AVID and taught within the school day by a trained AVID teacher. The National AVID program reported a record 22,210 seniors participated in AVID Center’s annual data collection process giving details about their demographics and academic achievements. Of the 2010 AVID seniors who reported their information, 99.6 percent graduated from high school with 91 percent planning to attend a post-secondary institution – 58 percent to four-year institutions and 33 percent to two-year institutions.

Additionally, 74 percent of the seniors reported taking at least one AP or IB course, with 61 percent taking the corresponding exam. The proportion of Hispanics/Latinos taking AP exams is almost five times higher among AVID students than among U.S. students overall.

Results also show that 2010 AVID seniors completed four-year college entrance requirements at a rate more than two times their peers. Presented by ethnicity in the chart below, AVID seniors more than tripled the national statistic in three of five ethnic groups. Since 1990, more than 85,500 AVID students have graduated from high school and planned to attend college.

“While others talk about what should be done to prepare students for college, AVID is doing it. For more than 30 years, the AVID College Readiness System has helped thousands of students who are typically overlooked and underserved, rise above the obstacles they face to achieve academic success,” said AVID Executive Director Jim Nelson.

Other information from the 2010 AVID senior class includes the following:

• 52 percent of AVID students were Hispanic or Latino; 17 percent, African American; 15 percent, white; six percent Asian
• 67 percent of AVID students were eligible for free or reduced lunch
• 88 percent of AVID students applied to a four-year college; 74 percent were accepted