AVID Implementation and Program Fidelity: One District's Case

The purpose of the study was to examine how four different high schools within one school district implemented the AVID program. The researcher used a comparative case study model to examine the different sites' programs and how the program and program implementation varied by site. The research questions answered how the AVID program was implemented by site, whether the program was implemented with fidelity, and if there were factors that impacted program implementation.

The AVID district coordinator, site administrators and site coordinators were surveyed to gauge the understanding of the AVID program, program implementation, and how AVID implementation impacts the program fidelity by site. AVID research suggests that the program works to address the needs of students from underserved populations and aims to help them access advanced academic classes and achieve more success within those college prep courses and school overall. This study may help school districts, school administation and AVID personnel better understand how site implementation impacts overall program success and to see how barriers impact the implemenation process at school sites.

Findings included, some school-based administrators and site coordinators did not feel they implemented the AVID program with fidelity, site administrators' involvement with the AVID implementation was inconsistent, most site administrators knew nothing about the specific rating of the AVID Coaching and Certification Instrument (CCI) or the measurement overall. Other findings were AVID site coordinators completed the AVID CCI and coordinated all aspects of the process and AVID implementation at the sites, site coordinators perceived that they implemented the AVID program with the most fidelity possible within their respective "means" but not with fidelity. Further, schools implemented the AVID Domains with varied degrees of fidelity according to the AVID CCI and each site had a unique implementation of the AVID program.