Orange, CA – January 18, 2019 – Orange Unified School District is proud to announce that Olive Elementary has been named an AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) Elementary Showcase School and will serve as a model of excellence for  elementary implementation of  the AVID College Readiness System.  Educators from around Southern California will visit the school in March to see how Olive has incorporated the AVID program into their school culture to help ensure college readiness for all students, from kindergarten all the way through sixth grade.

Olive Elementary is Orange Unified’s first AVID Showcase School and was noted by AVID  to be “an example of how instruction, leadership, culture and systems work together to offer students a quality education.” Out of 186 elementary schools currently participating in AVID across Southern California, Olive is only the sixth school to reach this achievement.

“In every classroom there was consistent use of WICOR (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading) strategies, a very high level of student engagement and use of academic language,” said Regional AVID Director Traci Grove, following her visit to the school. “You must be very proud of the teachers and students at Olive Elementary!”

OUSD first began offering AVID classes to middle and high school students and later expanded the program to the elementary level during the 2015-16 school year. AVID places special emphasis on growing writing, critical thinking, teamwork, organization and reading skills.

More information about  AVID is available online at https://www.avid.org/