Jason V Fowler
Hello and welcome to my page,
I serve as the school's AVID Coordinator, Senior Advisor, lead report writer (WASC & Distinguished Schools) , and I teach Senior AVID, Government and Economics.
A little history about NBECHS AVID
In Spring of 2005 as Nuview Bridge Early College High School was actively preparing to become California’s seventh Early College High School the teaching staff began to express concern that neither they nor the students were prepared for the new academic rigor being called for both in their core high school classes but also in supporting college classes the students would begin to take over the next year. The staff began to look for solution and came upon the Advancement via Individual Determination program (AVID). AVID was designed as an academic elective to provide students for college readiness by providing students with years of study skills and academic support throughout their years in high school. AVID came with very good credentials. Statewide AVID students are more likely to complete their college eligibility requirements, and get into four-year colleges than students who don’t take AVID. Almost all AVID students who participate for at least three years are accepted to college, with roughly three quarters getting into four-year universities. AVID also helps ensure students, once accepted to college, possess the higher-level skills they need for college success. (AVID Center, AVID Senior Data Collection 2007 - 2008. The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Center for Civic Innovation, Education Working Paper No. 8 February 2005, Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters, retrieved 12/7/08). AVID’s systemic approach is designed to support students and educators as they increase schoolwide learning and performance seemed tailor made for NBECHS’s needs. Additionally AVID is focused to best serve students who are academically in the middle, students with academic potential who often have gone unnoticed who have average test scores, a 2.0-3.5 GPA, a need for support but with high desire and determination, who are also either low income, the first in their family to attend college, from ethnic groups underserved in four-year colleges, have some other special circumstances or who fit many of these criteria. These are just the groups NBECHS is chartered to serve.
Over the summer of 2005 more than ½ of the NBECHS school staff attended the AVID summer institute and was trained in AVID methodologies. At that time the staff decided that their need was greater than most schools implementing the AVID program, where most schools had several years to prepare their students for college, NBECHS students were in college classes as they took AVID. It was decided then that NBECHS would become the first ever schoolwide AVID program. All students would be required to take AVID each year for one period each day, to learn organizational and study skills, work on critical thinking and asking probing questions, get academic help from peers and college tutors, and participate in enrichment and motivational activities which empowers students with the motivational and study tools necessary to be successful in both their college and high school courses.
NBECHS has been a schoolwide AVID program for three years and has seen great improvement in their student’s abilities, organization, and readiness for college coursework. AVID has helped NBECHS students to become more confident in their academic abilities, and have given them a venue to ask questions about college, to receive academic support from teachers, their peers, and college tutors, and as a safe supportive environment. All NBECHS staff has been trained and undergo frequent trainings and in-services in AVID methodologies and these methods have become the basis of our common classroom strategies, among these are Cornell notes, and AVID binders in all classes, common cross-curricular writing themes and lessons, Socratic seminars, and academic language support.
NBECHS hopes that AVID will continue to provide students with necessary support in meeting the challenge of rigorous coursework in both college and high school and help students continue to develop as readers and writers, develop deep content knowledge, learn content specific strategies for reading, writing, thinking and talking and to develop good habits, skills, and behaviors to be successful in college and further careers.
Description of AVID
NBECHS’s school-wide AVID program is a local version of the AVID program designed by educator Mary Swanson in 1980 to assist low income and minority students in San Diego, CA.. AVID provides students with academic study skills such as time management, Cornell note taking, textbook literacy strategies, library and online research, and organization through the maintenance of the AVID binders. AVID is a key component of the NBECHS rigorous program in that it offers the support students need to be successful in both their college and their high school classes. All NBECHS staff has been trained in AVID methodologies and as a school wide AVID program, use them in all classes. AVID at NBECHS has grown from four mixed grades sections in the fall of 2006 to 14 single grade AVID sections and one specialized English Language Learner (ELL) AVID this term. All NBECHS staff members are expected to attend the summer AVID institute at least every other year. Even if a teacher is not teaching AVID he/she is expected to learn and use AVID methodologies in their teaching. Classified and office staff is expected to become familiar with AVID so that they can support students’ learning of AVID methodologies if they students come to them for help. NBECHS administration is dedicated to the AVID program and has worked to ensure that monies are available to continue training the staff and hiring sufficient college tutors to bring the ratio of student to tutor to 7:1.
Class and textbook notes, time management calendars, assignments, and homework are kept in the AVID binders, which organize the students’ daily routines. AVID binders, calendars, and notes serve as structural supports that are important to ensure student success. Students keep Cornell notes in all of their academic classes and the quality and quantity of these notes are checked weekly by the AVID teacher or tutor. Students use their notes to ask higher order questions which guide their AVID tutorials which take place twice a week. Students fill out tutorials logs of their participation in AVID tutorials. In these groups students are led in academic problem solving discussions by the college age AVID tutors. One hour per week is devoted to motivational activities Career, college and military outreach speakers are invited to the AVID classes to speak to the students, introducing them to the many educational and career opportunities available. Once a month AVID field trips are scheduled for students to get experiences attending museums, art galleries, seeing plays, visiting universities, attending college fairs and occasionally getting the opportunity to network with other AVID college bound students through AVID Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags parties. All of these field trips help students to grow intellectually.
AVID uses writing as a tool of learning, through writing students can reflect on their own learning and development. This preparation revolves around the improvement of writing in all subject areas because writing clarifies thought. The AVID writing curriculum utilizes the writing process. Freshman AVID students begin with lessons on lecture and textbook note taking. They progress through the writing curriculum dealing with autobiography, firsthand biography, and descriptive and explanatory writing. Sophomore and junior AVID students focus on specific writing strategies such as describing processes and comparing and contrasting. The senior AVID students work to improve the skills acquired in the previous years by writing essays in various discourse modes and by applying these skills to timed writings, which prepare them for the college English placement examinations. Each year begins with all students preparing for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT) so that they are ready to participate in one of these exams in their junior and/or senior year. Freshman, sophomore, and junior students are also encouraged to take the Eleventh Grade Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT), the Tenth Grade Preliminary American College Test (PLAN), and the practice CAHSEE as further preparation. Students also study academic vocabulary words and the most common Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Students become “test wise” by taking mock SAT and ACT type practice exams. Additionally AVID 11 class take a practice University of California Analytical Writing Placement Exam administered and graded by the faculty of the University of California Riverside through the Inland Area Writing Project to prepare them for similar on-demand writing on the SAT, ACT and in college entry writing exams. AVID emphasizes the writing process that introduces students to the concepts of timed writing, teaches them to organize their thoughts quickly, and prepares them to write on any topic. Through writing about what they have learned students gain a greater understanding of their own learning styles, as well as of the standards which underlie all instruction. Seniors are expected to prove their writing skills though two senior research projects. These projects are modeled as “mini-dissertations” and require students to select, design, and perform research to write a paper more than twenty pages long. Seniors take pride in these projects and often use them as part of their college portfolio.
AVID employs college tutors, many of whom are former AVID students and graduates to work with students two hours per week in all academic areas. Tutors assist students primarily in small groups. Students come to class prepared with higher order questions about their assignments. Students learn Cornell note taking that helps them record, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate course concepts. These notes are the focus of the tutorial study group sessions. The students’ obligation to tutors is that they read or study the materials and have accompanying notes. The tutors do not provide answers; rather, they help the students with the process of learning through inquiry. Thus students learn to seek and use help, a skill often underdeveloped in NBECHS students. Furthermore, AVID emphasizing the Socratic method of inquiry and collaborative learning teach students yet another valuable skill that will assist them in being successful students, since the most successful college students are those who study in groups rather than in isolation.
Results of the Practice
AVID is a program which is extremely data driven. Twice a year demographic and achievement data is collected and reported to AVID center on all AVID students. Near the end of each year data is collected on AVID seniors which includes SAT and ACT test results, college application and acceptances, type and number of higher level high school courses (honors, AP, IB, or college classes,) as well as plans after graduation. This data is then disseminated and shared with all NBECHS teachers who collaboratively plan as part of an AVID site team improvements to the overall program. These improvements have led to greater student confidence and comfort in taking more challenging and rigorous classes, four years ago only 39.6% of the NBECHS students took college classes as of the 2007-08 school year 91.7% of the graduating class had successfully completed one or more college classes. Likewise only 16.7% of the seniors three years ago took either the SAT or ACT, as of last year 66.7% of the graduating class took one or both tests. AVID’s push for students to challenge themselves intellectually have resulted in 36 of our students being admitted into RCC Moreno Valley’s Honor’s Program. As of May 2008 there are more students from NBECHS in the RCC Honor’s Program than there are traditional RCC Moreno Valley students. In 2006 NBECHS proved its academic success through their students’ high achievement in standardized test scores that year their API rose by 109 points to 710 placing them among the top ten high schools in Riverside County. In addition to these high marks on the CST, NBECHS also had the highest first time CAHSEE passing rate in the county; 98% English, 94% mathematics. This year API rose an additional 36 points and CAHSEE pass rates were the highest in both Riverside and San Bernardino Counties with 93% English, 95% mathematics (Press Enterprise,9/9/08).
Anecdotally graduates report that what they learned in AVID has been very important to them in their further education, in the military or their jobs after high school. Each year at the AVID summer seminar teachers of the AVID class work alongside other teachers, AVID tutors and administration to review the overall site plan and alter it as needed.
Government/ Civics
Typically Senior students take Government in the Fall of the school year and Economics in the Spring.
The American system of constitutional democracy relies on its citizens’ commitment to the values and principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and other writings. These values and principles provide the foundation for the establishment, in James Madison’s words, of an “energetic” and effective government, one capable of fulfilling the purposes for which it was created—to protect the inalienable rights of the individual to life, liberty, and property and to promote the common good. Students should be able to identify and explain the importance of the basic rights guaranteed in the Constitution and Bill of Rights and their importance to the maintenance of our constitutional democracy.
Students in grade twelve pursue a deeper understanding of the institutions of American government. They compare systems of government in the world today and analyze the history and changing interpretations of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the current state of the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches of government. An emphasis is placed on analyzing the relationship among federal, state, and local governments, with particular attention paid to important historical documents such as the Federalist Papers. These standards represent the culmination of civic literacy as students prepare to vote, participate in community activities, and assume the responsibilities of citizenship.
This course explores the structure and dynamics of American national government, providing a broad-based introduction to the ideas and institutions that shape politics in the contemporary United States. We will focus our analysis on three major areas: the Constitution and the debates of the founding era, the institutions of modern American government, and the political behavior of the American mass public. We will study the strategies, roles, and limitations of both governmental elites and ordinary citizens, with particular emphasis on how they communicate and interact within the constitutional “rules of the game” to promote (or inhibit?) the achievement of public goods. Our analysis will draw heavily both on documents from America’s formative period and on insights from modern political science, allowing us to examine important political phenomena from a variety of perspectives. Ultimately, the goal of this course is to help each member of the class arrive at a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the forces that shape American government and politics, so that he or she may be both a more discerning student and critic of the system and a more informed and reflective participant in it.
Course Outcomes: Students will grasp the historical background of the American political system and understand the current political basis of the United States. They will be able to delineate and explain the differences in federal, state and local governmental structures and powers. Students will know major case law (such as Marbury vs. Madison, etc) and be able to explain in writing the legal doctrines articulated therein. They will know and understand common political and legal terms such as Stare decisis, quid pro quo, etc. Students will use a critical analysis approach to examine, discuss and write about social and political issues as they relate to the political process. Students will be able to recognize the value of dissent and the preciousness of consensus within our system and why some methods work while others are less effective. They will understand how conflict has defined and shape America society. Critical thinking skills will be honed through exploring past policies and views compared and contrasted with present issues and policies.
An assessment of understanding of course material will be achieved through written and objective exams. Comprehension of course material and an application of critical analysis along with research, writing and oral skills will be shown by students completing an in-depth research paper and class presentation or by a series of essay/research papers. Class discussion and participation will round out the students’ formal education by requiring students to explore and examine ideas in an academic setting.
12.1 Students explain the fundamental principles and moral values of American democracy as expressed in the U.S. Constitution and other essential documents of American democracy.
1. Analyze the influence of ancient Greek, Roman, English, and leading European political thinkers such as John Locke, Charles-Louis Montesquieu, Niccolò Machiavelli, and William Blackstone on the development of American government.
2. Discuss the character of American democracy and its promise and perils as articulated by Alexis de Tocqueville.
3. Explain how the U.S. Constitution reflects a balance between the classical republican concern with promotion of the public good and the classical liberal concern with protecting individual rights; and discuss how the basic premises of liberal constitutionalism and democracy are joined in the Declaration of Independence as "self-evident truths."
4. Explain how the Founding Fathers' realistic view of human nature led directly to the establishment of a constitutional system that limited the power of the governors and the governed as articulated in the Federalist Papers.
5. Describe the systems of separated and shared powers, the role of organized interests (Federalist Paper Number 10), checks and balances (Federalist Paper Number 51), the importance of an independent judiciary (Federalist Paper Number 78), enumerated powers, rule of law, federalism, and civilian control of the military.
6. Understand that the Bill of Rights limits the powers of the federal government and state governments.
12.2 Students evaluate and take and defend positions on the scope and limits of rights and obligations as democratic citizens, the relationships among them, and how they are secured.
1. Discuss the meaning and importance of each of the rights guaranteed under the Bill of Rights and how each is secured (e.g., freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, petition, privacy).
2. Explain how economic rights are secured and their importance to the individual and to society (e.g., the right to acquire, use, transfer, and dispose of property; right to choose one's work; right to join or not join labor unions; copyright and patent).
3. Discuss the individual's legal obligations to obey the law, serve as a juror, and pay taxes.
4. Understand the obligations of civic-mindedness, including voting, being informed on civic issues, volunteering and performing public service, and serving in the military or alternative service.
5. Describe the reciprocity between rights and obligations; that is, why enjoyment of one's rights entails respect for the rights of others.
6. Explain how one becomes a citizen of the United States, including the process of naturalization (e.g., literacy, language, and other requirements).
12.3 Students evaluate and take and defend positions on what the fundamental values and principles of civil society are (i.e., the autonomous sphere of voluntary personal, social, and economic relations that are not part of government), their interdependence, and the meaning and importance of those values and principles for a free society.
1. Explain how civil society provides opportunities for individuals to associate for social, cultural, religious, economic, and political purposes.
2. Explain how civil society makes it possible for people, individually or in association with others, to bring their influence to bear on government in ways other than voting and elections.
3. Discuss the historical role of religion and religious diversity.
4. Compare the relationship of government and civil society in constitutional democracies to the relationship of government and civil society in authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.
12.4 Students analyze the unique roles and responsibilities of the three branches of government as established by the U.S. Constitution.
1. Discuss Article I of the Constitution as it relates to the legislative branch, including eligibility for office and lengths of terms of representatives and senators; election to office; the roles of the House and Senate in impeachment proceedings; the role of the vice president; the enumerated legislative powers; and the process by which a bill becomes a law.
2. Explain the process through which the Constitution can be amended.
3. Identify their current representatives in the legislative branch of the national government.
4. Discuss Article II of the Constitution as it relates to the executive branch, including eligibility for office and length of term, election to and removal from office, the oath of office, and the enumerated executive powers.
5. Discuss Article III of the Constitution as it relates to judicial power, including the length of terms of judges and the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
6. Explain the processes of selection and confirmation of Supreme Court justices.
12.5 Students summarize landmark U.S. Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution and its amendments.
1. Understand the changing interpretations of the Bill of Rights over time, including interpretations of the basic freedoms (religion, speech, press, petition, and assembly) articulated in the First Amendment and the due process and equal-protection-of-the-law clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
2. Analyze judicial activism and judicial restraint and the effects of each policy over the decades (e.g., the Warren and Rehnquist courts).
3. Evaluate the effects of the Court's interpretations of the Constitution in Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, and United States v. Nixon, with emphasis on the arguments espoused by each side in these cases.
4. Explain the controversies that have resulted over changing interpretations of civil rights, including those in Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Miranda v. Arizona, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, and United States v. Virginia (VMI).
12.6 Students evaluate issues regarding campaigns for national, state, and local elective offices.
1. Analyze the origin, development, and role of political parties, noting those occasional periods in which there was only one major party or were more than two major parties.
2. Discuss the history of the nomination process for presidential candidates and the increasing importance of primaries in general elections.
3. Evaluate the roles of polls, campaign advertising, and the controversies over campaign funding.
4. Describe the means that citizens use to participate in the political process (e.g., voting, campaigning, lobbying, filing a legal challenge, demonstrating, petitioning, picketing, running for political office).
5. Discuss the features of direct democracy in numerous states (e.g., the process of referendums, recall elections).
6. Analyze trends in voter turnout; the causes and effects of reapportionment and redistricting, with special attention to spatial districting and the rights of minorities; and the function of the Electoral College.
12.7 Students analyze and compare the powers and procedures of the national, state, tribal, and local governments.
1. Explain how conflicts between levels of government and branches of government are resolved.
2. Identify the major responsibilities and sources of revenue for state and local governments.
3. Discuss reserved powers and concurrent powers of state governments.
4. Discuss the Ninth and Tenth Amendments and interpretations of the extent of the federal government's power.
5. Explain how public policy is formed, including the setting of the public agenda and implementation of it through regulations and executive orders.
6. Compare the processes of lawmaking at each of the three levels of government, including the role of lobbying and the media.
7. Identify the organization and jurisdiction of federal, state, and local (e.g., California) courts and the interrelationships among them.
8. Understand the scope of presidential power and decision making through examination of case studies such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, passage of Great Society legislation, War Powers Act, Gulf War, and Bosnia.
12.8 Students evaluate and take and defend positions on the influence of the media on American political life.
1. Discuss the meaning and importance of a free and responsible press.
2. Describe the roles of broadcast, print, and electronic media, including the Internet, as means of communication in American politics.
3. Explain how public officials use the media to communicate with the citizenry and to shape public opinion.
12.9 Students analyze the origins, characteristics, and development of different political systems across time, with emphasis on the quest for political democracy, its advances, and its obstacles.
1. Explain how the different philosophies and structures of feudalism, mercantilism, socialism, fascism, communism, monarchies, parliamentary systems, and constitutional liberal democracies influence economic policies, social welfare policies, and human rights practices.
2. Compare the various ways in which power is distributed, shared, and limited in systems of shared powers and in parliamentary systems, including the influence and role of parliamentary leaders (e.g., William Gladstone, Margaret Thatcher).
3. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of federal, confederal, and unitary systems of government.
4. Describe for at least two countries the consequences of conditions that gave rise to tyrannies during certain periods (e.g., Italy, Japan, Haiti, Nigeria, Cambodia).
5. Identify the forms of illegitimate power that twentieth-century African, Asian, and Latin American dictators used to gain and hold office and the conditions and interests that supported them.
6. Identify the ideologies, causes, stages, and outcomes of major Mexican, Central American, and South American revolutions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
7. Describe the ideologies that give rise to Communism, methods of maintaining control, and the movements to overthrow such governments in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, including the roles of individuals (e.g., Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel).
8. Identify the successes of relatively new democracies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the ideas, leaders, and general societal conditions that have launched and sustained, or failed to sustain, them.
12.10 Students formulate questions about and defend their analyses of tensions within our constitutional democracy and the importance of maintaining a balance between the following concepts: majority rule and individual rights; liberty and equality; state and national authority in a federal system; civil disobedience and the rule of law; freedom of the press and the right to a fair trial; the relationship of religion and government.
Economics
12.1 Students understand common economic terms and concepts and economic reasoning. 12.2 Students analyze the elements of America's market economy in a global setting 12.3 Students analyze the influence of the federal government on the American economy. 12.4 Students analyze the elements of the U.S. labor market in a global setting. 12.5 Students analyze the aggregate economic behavior of the U.S. economy. 12.6 Students analyze issues of international trade and explain how the U.S. economy affects, and is affected by, economic forces beyond its borders.
Senior Class EVENTS
March 15th. Last Day to File FAFSA
March 19th. All Senior meeting
March 30 - April 3rd. Senior snack week ( Contact Mr. Fowler or Senior officers to donate!)
April 3rd. Spring Fling Dance -All Seniors in attendance are entered in a drawing for a scholarship.
April 30th. Deadline to purchase Gradnight tickets
May 9th. Prom
May 14th. AVID Senior Recognition, UCR Student Recreation Center
May 15th. All Community Service hours are due (Seniors must accrue 120 hours of Community Service during their four years at NBECHS)
May 27th. Gradnight Six-Flags Magic Mountain (Bus leaves NBECHS at 4PM)
June 1-3rd. Finals