AVID Essay

AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a non-profit organization designed to promote high school success and college readiness in at-risk students. Unfortunately, AVID is in a relatively small amount of schools, less than 3% nationwide. Right now, the efficacy of the AVID program cannot be guaranteed. Because so many things affect the success of the program, and there has been a lack of proper field research, AVID cannot, at this point, be proven to help at-risk students to their fullest potential.

When AVID first started in 1980, it was a small one-room program that hosted only one class of students. At the time, only one teacher taught the program; Mary Catherine Swanson. She designed the AVID curriculum with the hopes of helping students who were determined to be at risk. She is credited for believing that every student can succeed with the proper educational assistance. Right now, AVID is in only 2.6% of schools nationally. It is possible that a main feature keeping AVID from growing is its exorbitant price; AVID teacher Alicia Gunderson says, “The AVID program is very expensive for schools to maintain.”

A large problem the AVID program may likely face is the possibility that a chosen teacher may be ill-suited to teaching the AVID curriculum. As much as the AVID program teaches school skills like organization and time management, it also teaches the importance of interpersonal skills and building relationships. An AVID instructor is meant to serve as a student advocate and an advisor to AVID students. This means the careful selection of a teacher is crucial. If a student is unable to form a bond with their AVID teacher, their success in the program is greatly jeopardized. Historically, an issue for students that are at risk or who come from a low socio-economic background was having teachers who underestimate them. This can entail skipping necessary lessons because it is assumed that a student will fail or won't understand the topic. Often, this thinking is a self-fulfilling prophecy, because this technique allows for at-risk students to fall behind in school.

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In some schools, there aren't enough tutors for all of the students. Gunderson, a teacher at the largest middle school in the state, says, “This is probably my biggest frustration as an AVID teacher. We have UNM and CNM and we still have a shortage.” As well as teachers, the AVID program relies heavily on the support of the school and school administrators. Because some of the program's curriculum extends to the organization and techniques into other classes, AVID is directly reliant upon how supportive the administration, teachers, and students are. This becomes an issue in very large schools, particularly high schools. In some larger schools, it is not uncommon for a teacher to be disconnected from the rest of the school, resulting in a lack of knowledge about other teachers, programs, and classes. If the AVID program requires the support of the entire school, it will be let down by the disconnected teachers that may have their own organizational rules or who may disagree with the teachings of the AVID program.

Right now, there is a severe lack of official, third-party research on the AVID program. At this point in time, AVID takes pride in its mission to promote equity, teacher effectiveness, leadership, and student learning, But these goals are poorly defined and cannot be measured. In their study of the success of AVID, Portland public schools reached the conclusion in their study Evaluation of AVID Effectiveness that “Although it is clear that much research supports the use of AVID, most of the research has been non-experimental in nature, did not utilize comparison groups, and had small sample sizes” (14). Many of the studies presented by the organization observed samples that were too small, often less than 40 students at a time. These small sample sizes make it impossible to make a statement on the findings. As well as these small studies, evidence has shown that AVID stilts the information being given to administrators, teachers, and students by posting graphs with manipulated data prominently on their website. Specifically, their graph on the enrollment of New Mexico seniors in college has a footnote that states that the data is collected in the first fall semester after graduation. This footnote is concerning because seeing as AVID is marketed as a college prep program, it is likely that these students were enrolled in college for the fall semester before they graduated high school while they were still in the AVID program. There is no further information on the enrollment statistics for seniors in New Mexico, which implies that the data was not recollected after classes were started. Manipulative data collection, such as this data which was collected solely to make the AVID program look good, is common in much of the AVID program and is also present in the third-party studies posted on the website. In some case studies, the number of children being researched at a time was below 40, far too few to make an appropriate generalization for the program. Another issue often seen in AVID studies is the lack of use of a proper control group. In most AVID studies designed to measure the aided success of at-risk or disadvantaged students, a class with disadvantaged students outside the AVID program is not observed for comparison. Not only does this lead to an extrapolation of data on the benefit of AVID. As of yet, the data provided by AVID vouching their efficacy is inconclusive. Upon further research, there is very little public information about the districts and schools that host the AVID program. In the data portion of the AVID website, there are links that lead to snapshots of the AVID progress state by state. While this should be a statistical gold mine for a researcher, only 22 of the supposed 47 states that host the AVID program have public snapshots available. This exclusion of statistics is a concerning choice, especially considering the evidence of manipulated data that has been present throughout the research process.

At this point in time, there is no way to tell exactly how effective AVID is. There are too many irregular variables to make an assumption about the efficacy of the program. The AVID program in New Mexico seems to be relatively well structured and supported. Further research should be done on the methods and goals of the program. It has great potential to aid disadvantaged students around the nation.

Works Cited

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2. CFA Staff. “Addressing the College Completion Gap Among Low-Income Students.” Addressing the College Completion Gap Among Low-Income Students, 3 Oct. 2018, collegeforamerica.org/college-completion-low-income-students/.
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4. Evaluation of AVID Effectiveness - Portland Public Schools. Multnomah County Partnership for Education Research, Oct. 2015, http://www.pps.net/cms/lib8/OR01913224/Centricity/Domain/207/avid_effectiveness_oct_2015.pdf.
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