Evaluation of PGCPS’ AVID Program
Kola K. Sunmonu, Ph.D. & Carole Portas Keane, Ph.D.
With Anirban Ghosh, Hanover Research
Executive Summary
The Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) program was designed to foster
college readiness in students who show academic potential and an interest in going to college,
but may lack other skills associated with college success. The AVID program primarily targets
students performing in the academic ‘middle’ (e.g., a grade point average between 2.0 and 3.5)
or from families in which most members have not previously attended college. The mission of
the AVID program is to help these students develop the life skills necessary for successful
postsecondary preparation and success. Specifically, the AVID program helps in laying out a
path to success for those students who have the desire to go to college and are willing to put in
the extra effort needed to learn the non-academic skills that foster higher achievement, such as
note-taking, time management, critical thinking, and effective study habits. The ultimate goal of
the AVID program is to improve college readiness and prepare students for a successful
postsecondary academic career. This report presents the findings from the evaluation of the
AVID program in PGCPS.
The primary goal of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the AVID
program in PGCPS is helping students in the academic middle improve their odds of being
college and career ready when they graduate. With this goal in mind, the evaluation was guided
by the following research questions:
 What is the effect of participating in AVID only in middle school on end-of-eighth
grade learning and student engagement outcomes?
 What is the effect of participating in AVID only in middle school on end-of-tenth
grade learning and student engagement outcomes?
 What is the effect of participating in AVID in middle and high schools on end-oftenth grade learning and student engagement outcomes?
In the present study, performance in math and reading/language arts, success in advanced
coursework, and meeting on-grade academic targets were used as proxies for student learning
outcomes, while consistent attendance (i.e., 95% or higher attendance rate) was used as proxy for
school engagement.
The research questions were addressed using a quasi-experimental approach to reduce
any bias between students who participated in the AVID program and those that did not.
Propensity score matching was utilized to create two groups of students who are identical on all
observable characteristics, but only differ in whether or not they participated in the AVID
program. Using this procedure, two samples of students were selected from the SY2009 7th
grade cohort. Thereafter, a series of linear probability models, each predicting the probability of
success on the outcomes of interest with participation in the AVID program as the key predictor,
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was developed and tested. The coefficients of the AVID program participation indicator and the
AVID program and school interactions were used to interpret the effect of AVID program on the
outcome measures. Key findings of the analyses are summarized below.
In the aggregate, the findings from the evaluation of the AVID program are not very
encouraging. Overall, the results of the analyses conducted do not indicate that participation in
AVID increases the odds of being on track to be college and career ready, be it in the immediate
or the long term. Nor do the results indicate there is any delayed effect of the program for those
that participated in the program only when they were in middle school. This conclusion
contradicts most of the literature on the effect of the AVID program and the acclaim most public
education officials place on the program. However, at the individual school level, there are
indications that the AVID program may be effective in increasing the odds of being on track to
college and career readiness. For some schools, the differentials between AVID and non-AVID
students in estimated probabilities of success are quite large, though most are not statistically
significant.
The lack of statistically significant positive association between participation in the
AVID program and student learning outcomes and school engagement may be due to a number
of factors. First, some of the students who participated in the AVID program during the period
covered by this evaluation are high achieving students and the inability to detect any difference
in post-program effects may be due to the ceiling effect. (The variables utilized in the analyses
were dichotomized and at the group level cannot be higher than 100 percent.) Another factor
that may be responsible for not detecting any impact of the AVID program is differential effects
at the school level that cancel each other out at the aggregate level. As reported, large, and
sometime statistically significant, effects were observed for some schools, while the effects in
other schools are negligible. The small number (265) of the students who participated in the
AVID program for whom complete data are available may also be responsible for the lack of
statistically significant positive association between participation in the AVID program and
student learning outcomes and school engagement. This is because the number of students that
can be used in the analyses at the individual school level becomes very small and exhibits little
variability.
Recommendations
Program Recommendation
1. Re-align middle and high schools offering the AVID program. Presently, a
significant number of students have the opportunity to participate in the program in
middle school but do not have the opportunity to do so in high school because the school
they matriculate into does not offer the AVID program. This results in students who
participated in the AVID program during middle school not being able to build on the
knowledge or skills they had acquired as they move into high school. And, those that
start participating in high school may have missed the formative years necessary to
acquire the basic skills and knowledge to benefit from the program. Ensuring that
students have the opportunity to participate in the AVID program both in middle and high
schools, will increase the chances of the program being effective.
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2. Exclusively target students that are in the ‘academic middle’. Although the majority
of the students who participated in the AVID program during SY2009 are in the
‘academic middle’ based on their mean scale score on grade 6 MSA math and reading
assessment, a sizeable minority appears to be high achieving students. The inclusion of
these high achieving students in the pool may be causing a ‘ceiling effect’ that makes it
difficult to detect differences between AVID participants and non-participants.
Recommendation for Future Evaluations
1. Conduct a full implementation evaluation. Before a new outcome evaluation is
conducted, a full implementation evaluation should be undertaken. At the very least, a
full implementation evaluation should be incorporated into the next evaluation of this
program. The very nature of the AVID program suggests that implementation will vary
by participating school. This was confirmed to the evaluation staff through informal
communication with program staff. Without knowing how the AVID program varies (in
both its implementation and content) by school, it will be difficult to conclusively opine
about the effectiveness of the program in improving the odds of students in the academic
middle being on track to be college and career ready when they graduate.
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