ARLINGTON -- Students can't help but think of college when they step inside the AVID classroom at Carter Junior High in Arlington.
Brightly colored pennants from schools in Texas and beyond decorate the walls. To help students get there, class time is filled with study skills, testing strategies, critical-thinking exercises and tutoring.
The nationally known system, called Advancement Via Individual Determination, takes students who finished elementary school in the middle of the pack and pushes them to excel in more challenging classes. They start taking AVID as an elective in junior high and middle school and continue through high school.
As it has expanded during the last few years, Arlington administrators said they have seen AVID work time and time again. It helps students who might have floated through secondary school without failing but never realizing their potential, they said.
"We can put them on the college track," said Linda Rodgers, coordinator of secondary special populations for Arlington. "It's their choice what they do with it, but it's our job as educators to give them that choice."
AVID was developed by a public school teacher in 1980. It's in more than 4,000 schools nationwide; 75 are in Tarrant County, including in Fort Worth, Crowley, Mansfield and the Birdville school district.