If suburban school districts are to maintain or improve academic performance levels as their student demographics change, they must be proactive about closing achievement gaps, raising achievement for all students, and preparing young people for the demands of the 21st century (Byrnes, 2003; Boykin & Noguera, 2011). It was with this goal in mind that administrators at Jenks High School identified the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) Program as a vehicle for improving educational outcomes for students from low socioeconomic or diverse ethnic backgrounds. Jenks High School was an early-adopter of AVID in Oklahoma, opening only the second program in the state in the 2006-2007 school year.
AVID began in California in 1980 and has since spread throughout the United States and to multiple other countries. A college readiness program designed to prepare underachieving high school students for college, AVID focuses on “students in the middle” (defined by a 2.5-3.5 GPA) and seeks to prepare students for success in post- secondary education through encouragement and support in rigorous courses, promotion of social growth and awareness, and academic counseling (Martinez & Klopott, 2005; Guthrie & Guthrie, 2000).
Research has demonstrated a variety of positive outcomes for students who
participate in AVID over the course of their high school careers. These outcomes include
1. higher levels of advanced coursework participation, increased high school academic achievement, and improved college readiness (Swail, 2000; Watt, Yanez, & Cossio, 2002; Watt, Powell, Mediola, & Cossio, 2006; Watt, Huerta, & Lozano, 2007)
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2. removal of barriers to advanced coursework participation and encouraging high expectations for all students (Mehan, Hubbard, & Villanueva, 1994; Watt, Powell, Mediola, & Cossio, 2006),
3. increased levels of self-efficacy among participating students (Mehan, Hubbard, & Villanueva, 1994; Black, et al., 2008),
4. higher levels of high school graduation and enrollment in post-secondary education (Bean & Valerio 1997; Guthrie & Guthrie, 2000; Slavin & Calderon, 2001; Watt, Powell, Mendiola, & Cossio, 2006; Hooker, 2009), and
5. better performance in college coursework (Hooker, 2009; Mendiola, Watt, & Huerta, 2010).
However, one relationship that had not been previously-explored was that between the AVID Essential Elements that make up the program and the development of self- regulated learning.
Self-regulated learning is “an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behavior, guided and constrained by their goals and the contextual features in the environment” (Pintrich, 2000, p. 453). Self-regulated learners show increased persistence and effort toward academic tasks, initiate and attend better to those tasks, and demonstrate higher levels of academic achievement than do non-self-regulated learners (Boekaerts & Cascallar, 2006; Horner & O’Connor, 2007; Zito et al., 2007). With these positive outcomes for self-regulated learners in mind, it is necessary to consider ways in which schools (and programs within schools) might encourage the development of self-regulation within students.
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Niemiec and Ryan (2009) discussed ways in which self-determination theory relates to the development of self-regulation in students. Self-determination theory identifies the underlying source of student’s autonomous self-regulation and helps
explain how social influences either support or inhibit students’ self-regulation capacities (Reeve et al., 2012). It posits that, when teachers meet students’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, students are more likely to demonstrate internalized motivation to learn as well as to show more autonomous engagement in their schoolwork (Ryan & Deci, 2000). A review of the AVID Essentials showed that many of these elements were likely to encourage the development of conditions conducive to self-regulated learning. However, a more thorough study of the program at Jenks High School was necessary to determine its effectiveness both in the area of promoting student self-regulation and in the other areas of focus for this program evaluation.
In order to evaluate the performance of the Jenks High School AVID Program, this study took a mixed methods approach, an approach that provides the opportunity for a more nuanced look at program implementation and outcomes than would a solely qualitative or quantitative approach. The following research questions were considered:
1. To what extent does the Jenks High School AVID Program conform to the AVID “Eleven Essentials”?
2. To what extent do the AVID “Eleven Essentials” promote the development of competency, relatedness, and autonomy, the components of self-regulation? 3. Do students participating in the Jenks High School AVID Program exhibit higher
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4. To what degree has the Jenks High School AVID Program promoted higher rates of advanced coursework participation, high school graduation, and enrollment in postsecondary education among program participants?
Qualitative data were collected via focus group sessions with key stakeholders in the AVID Program, from direct observation of AVID Academic Support Elective classes, and from an open-ended response question included in an AVID student survey
conducted in the spring of 2013. Quantitative data were collected through analysis of the results of the Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire given to AVID students and a comparison group of students in the academic middle.
Discussion of Key Findings
The data gathering and analysis process used in this program evaluation led to key findings related to each of the four research questions stated above.