WENATCHEE — Haleigh Davis remembers what it felt like speaking up in class.

“I just get all bunched up and I feel like everyone is looking at me,” the 17-year-old Wenatchee High School student said. “I never thought I would go out there and speak in front of people before.”

She stood in front of teachers, principals and the school board earlier this month to explain how a single class, AVID, changed all that.

“I take a deep breath and think about our Socratic seminars and how we’re all one big circle of trust and it just all goes away,” she said.

She is one of nearly 300 Wenatchee students, grades 7 to 12, who were chosen for AVID, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination.

The idea is to push academically average students to perform as well as the best and brightest on the college track.

In middle school, students apply to enroll in an AVID class where they learn college-level note-taking, organization and other skills to help them get ahead. Their AVID teacher becomes their mentor-cheerleader-cop who tracks their performance in every class.

In high school, the students are expected to take the toughest classes available, including Advanced Placement and high-level math.

A one-period AVID class supports those efforts with tutorials, critical-thinking exercises and college visits.

The program has proven itself to be a game-changer:

• The first AVID class graduated last year; 85 percent enrolled in a college.

• AVID students outperform others on the state assessment. About 16 percent more AVID sophomores last spring passed the math test compared to non-AVID students. Nearly 30 percent more passed the reading and writing tests. Compared to other low-income students, the differences in testing results are even greater.

• AVID students change the demographics of AP classes. In 2002, low-income students made up 1 percent of the high school’s 175 AP students. Hispanics were 4 percent. This year, AP enrollment has grown to 312, including 10 percent low-income and 11 percent Hispanic students.

The program was designed for students earning between a 2.0 and 3.5 grade point average who show potential and a personal drive for higher learning.

Students must be either low income, minorities, first in their family to attend college or going through “special circumstances.”

Shane Whitaker was a “special circumstance” kid. His grandmother and only brother died in a car accident when he was in sixth grade.

When he was recruited to AVID in eighth grade, he had been held back in math class and “I was a terrible student,” he said.

His counselor at Orchard Middle School cut him a deal: “If I gave her one semester of AVID, she would leave me alone about it,” he said. Now 17, Whitaker said AVID “shaped my life.”

“Everyone has been here at least two years; we’re like a family,” he said about his AVID class.

“There are other college prep programs out there that teach the same kind of skills AVID does, but I honestly believe it’s the relationship perspective that makes AVID successful.”

Angel Guerra, 17, said AVID is the only reason he didn’t drop Algebra 2 this year.

He’s the kicker on the football team and the goalie for soccer. He couldn’t risk being put on academic probation.

“I was going to move into an easier math, but they were like, no, you can’t move because when you go and talk to colleges they’re going to look at you like you didn’t try your best, like you gave up on yourself,” Guerra said. “I’m hanging in there.”

On his last test, he earned a B-plus, which he attributed to tutorials and support from his AVID teacher and peers.

“They push you because they know what you have in you,” he said.

“They know if you push yourself harder, you’re going to do better.”

Rachel Schleif: 664-7139

schleif@wenatcheeworld.com