Fancher Creek Elementary named 'National Showcase School' by AVID Center

Jessica Harrington Image
Saturday, January 4, 2025 12:57AM
Fancher Creek Elem. named 'National Showcase School' by AVID Center
There's a method and strategy to teaching and learning at Fancher Creek Elementary School.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- There's a method and strategy to teaching and learning at Fancher Creek Elementary School.

That includes taking three-column notes.

"We'll write out the word, the definition and the synonym and antonym of it." Fourth grade student Elodie Carlson explained.

The strategies are so clear the students, like Elodie, can tell you all about it.

In math, they expand the form to help work out the math problem.

"Right now we're on a bunch of dividing. So dividing four digit numbers, three digit numbers." Elodie said.

As a formerly homeschooled student, she says learning in this way has helped her grow.

That includes keeping a planner and checking tasks off as they complete them.

"Every Monday we'll write all our plans for the week." Elodie said.

It's part of the AVID -- or "Advancement Via Individual Determination" -- way of teaching, which helps educators shift from delivering content to facilitating learning.

"The focus of AVID is to provide teachers and students with strategies to close that opportunity gap with college and career readiness." Sixth grade teacher Kathleen DeLuca said.

DeLuca has helped lead the change at Fancher Creek.

She and her colleagues collaborate to come up with best practices.

"We'll take a standard and a strategy and we'll see ok what does that look like in kindergarten, what does it look like in first grade? All the way to sixth grade." DeLuca said.

The changes paid off for the elementary school recently as they were chosen by the AVID Center as a National Showcase School.

Beyond the strategies implemented, part of the reason they were chosen was because in a single school year, student achievement increased 4% in English Language Arts and 4% in Math.

"For us to be a Title I school that is an AVID Showcase School is really something to be proud of." DeLuca said.

Parents like Tamara Lainez say they have noticed the change.

Lainez has had three children already pass through Fancher Creek, but she can see the difference in her youngest son, Adam.

"With this younger one, I don't have to do as much coaching with him when we work together on his homework or any assignments that he has." Lainez said.

Lainez says she's excited to see the growth in her son and other students as they move on to middle school and high school.

"The future looks pretty bright." Lainez said.

As an AVID Center National Showcase School, educators from across the country will visit Fancher Creek to see what they are doing so that they can take those skills and implement them at their own schools.

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