Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) is a comprehensive program which combines many components of student-centered outreach programs with systemic curriculum improvement and professional development. In other words, AVID integrates student-centered and school-centered strategies. Begun in San Diego by a high school English teacher, AVID has grown throughout California and in other states and countries. As of September 2001 AVID operates in over 1200 schools in 21 states and 14 countries.
AVID demonstrates that a crucial factor in improving the college preparation of underrepresented students is to get them enrolled in rigorous college-preparatory classes and then support them to be successful in those classes and in planning for college. Students who are identified for AVID are perceived to have high potential despite average grades. The AVID class operates as an elective in the student's daily schedule. AVID provides intensive student support, study skills, college student mentor-tutors, test preparation, college information, family involvement, and motivational activities.
When compared with the evaluations of most other college-preparation programs, the evaluations of AVID have been quite extensive. Longitudinal studies of cohorts of high school AVID students have shown strong relationships between participation in AVID and four-year college enrollment and persistence. Studies have shown relationships between the number of years students spend in AVID and various performance indicators including college attendance. The college-going rate for students completing AVID is more than twice that of national rates for similar groups of students. Overall 93 percent of AVID graduates go on to college, with 70% attending four-year colleges. Studies have also examined persistence rates and college grades of AVID graduates with positive results.
Hugh Mehan, a faculty member at UC San Diego, and others have analyzed the outcomes for AVID students in relation to program components in an attempt to explain what makes AVID effective. There appear to be multiple factors that contribute to AVID's success. Some are relatively specific, such as study skills and teaching the college-entry process. Other factors are attributable to the intensive nature of the program class period every day over several years with a group of AVID students and a teacher-advocate and college student tutors.
It may well be that it is the synergistic effect of all the elements in the comprehensive program sustained over time that accounts for the positive outcomes for AVID students. Mehan et al. state that "AVID coordinators are engaged in an explicit socialization process in their classrooms that parallels the implicit socialization process that occurs in well-to-do families." (Constructing School Success, p. 10). Mehan et al. state further that "AVID coordinators explicitly teach aspects of the implicit culture of the classroom and the hidden curriculum of the school. Furthermore, they mediate the relationship between families, high schools, and colleges by serving as advocates and sponsors of AVID students."
The AVID program is also noteworthy for its attention to maintaining integrity of the program in its replication and dissemination. The literature on innovative programs is replete with examples of highly effective programs that deteriorate in the process of being adapted in other settings to the point of being recognizable in name only. An infrastructure of professional development support for AVID dissemination has been implemented through regional and district centers. These centers provide support to schools implementing AVID. The AVID Center in San Diego has also instituted a certification process for reviewing local AVID programs. The combination of certification and ongoing staff development for school teams operating AVID help to ensure faithful program implementation.