Increasing access to post-secondary education remains a policy goal, while uncertainty remains as to the best policy interventions to achieve it. Field tests of programs focusing on earlier guarantees of financial support and career preparation have found some success. However, longitudinal studies also find that early high school academic performance and “academic engagement” can explain differences in participation, independent of financial and aspiration factors. Therefore, an intervention that raises achievement and engagement in high school may also hold promise for future education policy. The Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program is a well-established academic preparation program that focuses on raising the academic performance and engagement of students who are “middle-achieving” early in high school. This paper presents results from the first large-scale randomized controlled trial established to determine the impact of making the AVID elective available for 4 years to middle-achieving students. It examines impacts on their course choices, achievement and access to postsecondary education.

Since its development by a high school teacher in San Diego, California in 1980, the AVID program has expanded to include more than 4,800 schools in the United States. AVID seeks to change the high school experience of those students believed to have as-yet-untapped potential to succeed in post-secondary education by increasing the rigor of their coursework and providing, in the context of an elective class, several different kinds of support for their learning. The selected students are expected to commit to full enrolment in the AVID elective class and also to enroll in the most rigorous courses in their school. The elective class is structured into three main components: the curriculum class, tutorials, and motivational activities. The curriculum class teaches the students how to study, ask questions, prepare for written work, read for content, take notes, work collaboratively, manage time and become more organized. Subject-specific tutorials are led (ideally) by tutors who are currently post-secondary students and trained to use skilful questioning to raise students’ understanding of their course work. Motivational activities include guest speakers, team-building activities, and field trips to post-secondary campuses, all intended to promote the idea that post-secondary study is attainable.

This paper contributes the first evidence from a randomized trial involving 1,522 students in 21 British Columbia high schools on how well the program meets its objective to increase students’ chances of (a) enrolling in more rigorous study in high school, (b) improving their achievement in high school, (c) increasing academic engagement in high school and (d) enrolling in post-secondary education. The paper presents evidence that the program produced significant impacts on the first three outcomes but generated no impacts on post-secondary enrolment.