Meet the people who've been quietly turning hundreds of thousands of underserved students into college-bound high achievers

The Advancement Via Individual Determination program--otherwise known as AVID--is the nation's largest college preparatory program. Once a school adopts AVID teaching strategies, student performance improves campus-wide. Yet for more than three decades, AVID has been largely ignored in the dialogue about improving student outcomes and closing the achievement gap. What's going on?

Question Everything outlines the time-tested AVID program beginning with its creation in the 1980s by classroom teacher Mary Catherine Swanson. Filled with illustrative examples of how the AVID system has been applied successfully in real-world classrooms to help all students excel in college and in life, the book explores the central tenets of AVID:

• All students take rigorous courses
• Students are taught note-taking strategies that foster understanding
• Focus shifts to inquiry-based learning
• Trained tutors meet regularly with students
• Applying for college is integral to classroom activities
• Teachers and students are part of a free-thinking family

Award-winning education journalist Jay Mathews takes us behind the scenes to witness how this rigorous college-readiness program was formed against all odds. He shows us how AVID not only helps students learn to absorb new information, but also trains them to continually ask questions that get to the conceptual root of each lesson. Most of all, Mathews illustrates how AVID equips students with the personal management skills they'll need in college--and the world beyond.