The Osceola County School District is one of 38 Florida school districts that participate in the Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, a nation-wide program.
It’s geared towards students hovering at a C-average, right at the level required for graduation, who have added potential that they may not have tapped into yet – not failing, but lacking the motivation or encouragement to do their best.
AVID’s collegereadiness goals are simple: Accelerate underachieving students who have potential into more rigorous courses, teach academic and social skills not targeted in other classes, provide intensive support with in-class tutors and a strong student– teacher relationship, create a positive peer group for students, develop a sense of hope and personal achievement through hard work and determination.
Per AVID’s website (avid.org), researchers have found that districts that provide the AVID elective are more likely to provide more rigorous coursework and that students are more likely to be successful in the coursework by their senior year.
AVID students in Florida cross every ethnic background – 34 percent Caucasian, 33 percent Hispanic, 25 percent African-American. And in 2018, one hundred percent of Florida’s AVID students graduated from high school.
A recent study of Osceola’s AVID program was commissioned this year, and found that the program achieves success locally. Overall, its high school participants, despite starting out as C students, had measurably higher grade point averages, take more accelerated courses (like AP and career/ technical courses), were more likely to obtain “learning gain points” (a widely utilized measure of student growth in the state of Florida) in both language arts and mathematics, and are more likely to enroll in college at more consistent rates than if they didn’t enroll in AVID, and get college scholarships. The same significant difference between mean GPAs was true in middle school courses, although with a smaller difference.
And while FSA standardized testing will soon be replaced in Florida, for students in high school, the students in the AVID elective scored statistically significantly higher on the standardized tests than students not enrolled in the elective on all subject area examinations.
And, to the benefit of the School District, the conclusion of the study’s research is that Osceola County’s implementation of AVID is associated with increases in school grades.
So, in short, in Osceola County, AVID works.
