Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect the Advancement ViaIndividual Determination (AVID) program has on ninth grade reading, writing, and mathachievement. The study was conducted in the Blue Valley School District, a largesuburban school district in the Midwest. AVID was implemented in all four Blue ValleyHigh Schools during the 2007-2008 school year. The school district identified 209students, representing all four high schools, who were eligible for enrollment in theAVID program. Not all eligible students enrolled in the AVID program. The 209students involved in this study were divided into two groups, AVID students (112) andnon-AVID (97) students. This study compared standardized test results of these twogroups of students to determine the effect the AVID program had on student achievementlevels in reading, writing and mathematics. The Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) and the Blue Valley WritingAssessment were the two instruments used to determined student achievement levels forthis study. Writing achievement for this study was determine by analyzing the students’spring 2007 and spring 2008 Blue Valley Writing Assessment scores. Reading andmathematics achievement for this study was determined by analyzing the students’ fall2007 and spring 2008 MAP scores. This study was quantitative and three t-tests forindependent means were conducted to test the three research hypotheses.. Results from this study showed no statistical difference in student achievement inthe academic domains of reading, writing, and mathematics between the students enrolledin the AVID program and those students who chose not to enroll in the AVID program.After testing the research hypotheses for each academic domain: the obtained test statistic value for reading was t = -.286, the obtained test statistic value for mathematics was t =.794, and the obtained test statistic value for the writing was t = .882.