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0:00 No kid should be limited by what they can achieve because of their post code.

0:14 Hello and welcome to the educator TV.

0:16 I'm Kylie Spear and joining me today is Dr. Claire Brown, executive director at AVID Center Australia. Avid Center

0:25 Australia has been named as a winner of the Educator Service Provider Awards for 2026.

0:33 Welcome to you, Claire, and thank you so much for joining us today.

0:38 Thank you so much, Kylie. We are beyond thrilled to receive this award. Uh and that's in honor of all the schools that

0:46 we have worked with previously over the 16 years that AVID has been in Australia and that the schools uh that we continue

0:53 to work with now can be honored in this way is just remarkable. Thank you.

Chapter 2: What the 2026 Service Provider Award means

0:58 Well firstly CLA huge congratulations on being named a 2026 five-star service

1:06 provider. What does this recognition mean for Avid Australia and your team?

1:13 Uh, thank you so much, Kylie. I think we're all still pinching ourselves. We laugh uh because it's like being an

1:20 overnight success after 16 years of effort uh and proving the concept. So,

1:27 AVID came into Australia on the back of a a federal government grant, a higher education participation partnership

1:35 project grant, and we weren't really sure how long it would continue. Most of these kinds of grants are implemented

1:44 for 3 years and then they disappear. Um maybe they're picked up, maybe they're not. But in this case, we have now gone

1:51 on from that initial hit funding to become a self reliant a self- sustaining

1:57 organization that really is supported by schools for schools and with schools.

2:03 And that means the world to us because this isn't our award, it's all of our award. And we really believe in the

2:11 design of co a co co-design approach in AVID and we believe in supporting our schools amplifying their success and

2:19 sharing everything that they do that we can learn from so that collectively we all get better at this really tricky

2:27 business of teaching and learning which is a beautiful segue to my next question. Speaking of co-designes, can

Chapter 3: A school turnaround: co-design and the evidence

2:36 you walk us through one school partnership where AVID's approach led to a measurable shift in teaching quality or student outcomes?

2:47 I it's so hard to choose a success story because so many of the AVID schools are their own success story. Uh so one of

2:57 the things that we did last year was invested in having some external arms length independent research done for us

3:05 by Dr. Peter Goss who will be well known to many people watching this video and he took on the challenge of evaluating

3:15 AVID's impact in schools on the proviso that if we found that there was no significant impact that is what he was

3:23 going to report to us. Um so it was a big risk but after 16 years I was really confident that what we saw these schools

3:31 achieving could be documented with hard evidence both qualitative and quantitative and that's what we saw. So

3:39 the case study that we talk about is Windham Central College and we talk about them as a case study with their permission. So when they first came to

3:47 AVID in 2011 2012 um they were known by their previous school name which was

3:53 Galvin Park Secondary College. They were not doing so well for a number of reasons. Gentrification, changes in um

4:03 the way this this the area was growing and developing new schools and so on.

4:08 and they brought in a principal whose job it was to decide whether or not the school was to be closed or it could

4:15 continue. A principal from the school went to America and experienced what we call the AVID summer institute which is

4:24 a 3-day immersion professional learning experience and over there that sharing professional learning with 5,000 other

4:31 teachers. So that in itself was a massive um cultural impact of a different kind.

4:39 But what she saw there was really inspiring. So she brought some teachers over to the next summer institute to have a look and that included some

4:48 teachers who were getting ready to leave not just the school but to leave education all together. They were done

4:55 and she said no no I want you to have a look at this thing called Abbott and tell me what you think. Is this something we could implement to turn

5:02 around our school? And those teachers when and as a group one of the things AVID does is empower teacher collective

5:12 efficacy. We want change in schools to be sustained and owned by teachers who care deeply about the students in their school and their school and each other.

5:23 And so these educators came together after their experience of summer institute and said we can see how

5:31 this could work for us. So they form what's called a site team and with the principal's guidance and leadership they

5:39 then determine how their school is going to implement AVID. What will be the pedagogical framework? What kind of approach to professional learning will

5:48 align with their strategic goals and targets? and they are empowered then to support leadership and work with leadership to ensure that the way avid is implemented will achieve their goals.

6:00 Now each state in Australia also has frameworks and strategies that we must

6:08 be mindful of. So in each state where it is implemented, we are also mindful of

6:15 those strategic documents that education departments produce to ensure that the individual school strategic plan is also

6:24 going to achieve what the state has mandated are the the shared targets and goals um for the state as well as for

6:31 the individual schools. So Windham Central had all of that knowledge that they had to plan around and they

6:38 empowered their site team to make those choices and to guide the implementation of AMID schoolwide. Now, that was going

6:46 to take a couple of years because change takes time. And we see that in the research by Fulen, by Denim, by the OECD

6:55 that says it takes at least 6 years to see change start to take effect and to

7:02 be sustained and that's what you see in Windham. So, when Peter Goss crunched

7:09 the NAP plan data for Windham Central College, the results were astounding.

7:15 And he went from telling me CLA if I find there is no impact that is what I will tell you to he rang me and said you

7:24 will not believe what I am seeing in this data. I'm just going to look at another screen to give you the the actual results. And what he found was

7:34 that on the 10-year trend, Windham Central College had boosted its value ad by about 6 months in year 7, which is a

7:42 nice modest improvement, but by 18 months in year 9, and that's across all

7:49 NAP plan domains. So, reading, writing, and numeracy. they'd gone from below

7:56 national averages to now shooting up um above national averages. So in particular they've gained about 2 years of value add in writing since 2024.

8:09 in reading about 18 about 1.3 years of value add in reading since since 2014 to

8:15 2024 and in numeracy about 18 months of value ad in year 9 from 2014 to 2024.

8:25 Now, AVID has played a part in that, but more importantly, those teachers at that school with the

8:33 leadership from that school have stayed the course. In this world of education where there are fast grabs and new

8:41 things coming in and shiny new objects that are departments are quick to attach to latch on to and and throw at schools.

8:50 These schools have made a choice to stay with AVID and to continue to implement AVID over time. And this is the result

8:58 that you see. When you implement a school improvement program like AVID over time with Fidelity, you can get

9:07 amazing results and your teachers are every bit as capable as teachers anywhere else to achieve those amazing results for their kids.

9:19 And no kid should be limited by what they can achieve because of their post code.

9:24 They are incredible results. Claire, thank you so much for sharing. Uh and this leads beautifully to my next

9:32 question. Avid supports schools across a wide range of contexts. Can you share

Chapter 4: Tailoring support to different school communities

9:38 how you tailor your services to meet the unique needs of different school communities?

9:45 It's such a privilege to work in this organization. Um, and it's because we are so respectful of the educators who

9:53 we are privileged to walk alongside. We don't come into a school with the answers. We don't come in to a school

10:01 with a one-sizefits-all model that you can apply. The first thing we do is listen. We walk into a school and we

10:07 always we always come to the school. We don't ask the school to come to us initially. We will walk into your school

10:16 and we will watch and we will listen and we will learn and we will be respectful of all the things that are going on in

10:22 that school where the successes are, what's working. And then once we're invited, we can start to talk about what

10:30 could be even better if from the experience that we've got um from working with over a 100 schools across

10:38 Australia over the last 16 years and in the US on a greater scale over 7 and a half thousand schools in 47 US states.

10:49 So we've got some great resources. We've got some great professional learning um innovations, but also some tried andrue

10:58 evidenceinformed things that are never going out of fashion. So, I think it's pretty safe to say we want teachers to

11:06 always be able to scaffold lessons and differentiate for for their students to have for teachers to have a repertoire

11:13 of teaching strategies from explicit teaching through to um more student centered kind of approaches where those

11:22 students are ready to take off and fly if they're just given the right stimulus to do so. Uh, and teachers need to have the right strategy for the for each

11:30 child that they can pull out of their kit bag at the right time and the confidence to know that that strategy is

11:38 going to work today for that kid, but maybe tomorrow I might need to try something else because we do have the sports carnival. They're going to be a bit tired when they come in after lunch.

11:46 So, I'm going to have to tweak my practice a little bit. Um, this is all great teaching and it's what you learn

11:53 over time. You can't rush this. It takes time to be a great teacher and then to get it right for every child at every

12:02 moment of every day. That's rocket science. It sounds like such fulfilling work. Claire, what feedback from schools

Chapter 5: Feedback from schools and lasting partnerships

12:11 has been most rewarding for your team to receive over the years?

12:17 The fact that we're still here. So, as I said to you with that HEP grant, I think there was probably some fine print in the HEP grant that said, "And by the

12:25 way, you need to become self- sustaining." Um, and I probably tic that box as you would, but we actually have

12:32 done that. We are 16 years in, we are self- sustaining. We continue to grow.

12:39 We retain the schools that we've got.

12:42 And so, we've got AVID schools that have now been with us for 13, 14, 15 years. I

12:48 liken it to um coaching. Roger Federer had a coach all his career, but the

12:56 coach he had when he was seven, learning to do that silky one-handed backhand, was a different coach than the person he

13:05 had when he had made it to the world number one position and needed the mental coaching to stay there and continue to be on top of his game. And

13:12 AVID adapts like that. So the fact that our schools can see the value and we can adapt our coaching and professional

13:20 learning to meet their needs over time and to begin to empower that site team that drives the AVID professional

13:28 learning at the school with the confidence and the skills to be able to bring their own colleagues on board and to own their own professional learning.

13:37 That's just such a wonderful privilege and we don't get tired of that. So being invited back to our schools, um, and

13:47 that's another thing that's different about AVID because we go back year after year after year, we kind of become part

13:53 of the AVID family or the AVID team, the AVID community at that school. What a privilege that is. And we never never

14:02 take that for granted either. So we see teachers, we we watch some of the kids grow up as well. um we share their

14:09 success, we share the tragedies when they happen as well and we feel like we are part of the school. Um so that's a

14:18 great reward. But then a lot of our teachers have gone on to win national awards, international awards. Uh our

14:27 students have been successful in getting into the courses that they didn't think maybe they would ever get into. Not only do they get into those courses, they

14:36 then thrive because AVID prepares you not just to be successful at school, but if you go to university, it equips you

14:45 with a whole lot of strategies to be successful at university as well. And again, another uh compliment that we get

14:54 that we love is when students come back and tell us, "So that Abbott stuff, I I thought I was going to leave it behind when I left school and I went to

15:02 university and attended my first two days and was floundering. Didn't know what was going on. I just went back to all my AVID strategies, critical

15:10 reading, my organizational skills, my writing skills. Um, and AVID's now my lifelong companion. It's life skills.

15:19 Um, and that's a that's a privilege as as well. So, we we just you're right, we love what we do. Um, because we just

15:28 believe that teachers deserve to be celebrated and rewarded for the life-changing work that they do.

 

Chapter 6: Priorities: supporting key student transitions

15:36 And finally, Claire, looking ahead, what are your priorities for continuing to support Australian schools in their improvement journey?

15:46 Well, we want to continue to be one of those small niche products that schools can

15:53 come to if they really need um a professional learning approach that they

16:00 can co-design and own and come and contextualize for their school site with um an external coach who will continue to guide them and support them as well.

16:11 Um so we want to continue to do that.

16:13 But one of the things that we think is really important is helping students through key transitions. And those three

16:19 key transitions are from primary school to secondary school and then from secondary school to whatever comes next,

16:27 whether that's tertiary education into the workplace, a gap year, whatever it is, they've got to be ready for it.

16:33 They've got to be prepared with the skill set to survive and thrive into whatever comes next. So those transition points are pieces that AVID can help

16:42 with. And we've got a case study in Western Australia where we've got Baldiviver Secondary College and Maky Rise Primary School. They started AVID

16:50 together 14 years ago. And that was a really great initiative to see a primary school and a secondary school working

16:58 together, sharing professional learning together, and then seeing their students progress through that tricky transition

17:05 from year 7 into the high school. And your bald diver secondary teachers will now tell you when the year sevens sit

17:13 down on day one, they can pick the kids who went to Maky Rise Primary, even though everyone's dressed in the same

17:21 uniform because there is a readiness to learn and a skill set that those students have learned over time that

17:29 differentiates them to be ready for success. And because we've now got 14 years of data and evidence at Bald Iver

17:37 in year 12 just this last year, what we saw was a disproportionate number of the Maky Rise students won both the academic awards and the community service awards.

17:48 So there's something there that we would like to research and again be able to tangibly quantify what is it that Abbott

17:56 is doing to set these schools these kids up to be successful in the transition from primary to secondary and then beyond.

18:05 Amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time today and congratulations once again, Claire.

18:12 Thank you so much, Kylie. Oh, we need it. We are so honored um to be part of the educator awards

18:20 to be validated for being able to celebrate great teaching and support teachers. I don't think there's a more

18:27 important set of awards that could be out there. So, thank you for allowing us to be part of that. And and shout out to the AVID Australia team. All of this

18:36 happens with Susan Walker and Steph McDonald. Um we are a team of three and we run AVID across Australia. It's a joy

18:44 to work with both of them. They are fine educators in their own right. Um and then together to do this work to support

18:51 all the schools across Australia. You're right. We couldn't we couldn't want a better job.

18:57 That's so lovely. And thank you of course to our viewers for watching the latest episode of the Educator TV. We look forward to seeing you again soon.