AVID Australia

In 2011, VU received Commonwealth HEPPP competitive funding for $1.4m to lead the implementation and research in AVID – a university-readiness system – in schools and tertiary institutions across Australia. AVID has primary, secondary and tertiary programs. It has a strong evidence base for its efficacy and was recently highlighted as a case study of excellence of the OECD report: Excellence and Quality in Education. Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools on page 141: OECD report.  AVID works by simultaneously equipping low SES and underperforming students with the academic, social and emotional skills to be successful at university, and provides an ongoing professional learning system that builds explicit teaching skills with additional support for school leaders to help students aspire to and succeed at university. The whole school impact of AVID in improving school performance is a key focus of our research.

Partners

There are currently fifteen schools in Victoria, NSW and WA implementing AVID, and VU is partnering with the following universities to assist schools, and to implement AVID in their own curricula:

• Charles Sturt University
• LaTrobe University
• Macquarie University and
• Murdoch University

Research

Our AVID Australia research project aims to investigate how effective, sustainable and transferable the AVID system can be in Australia. This project involves groups of teachers, students, and pre-service teachers across four Australian schools that are implementing AVID. We will use a combination of research methodologies including survey data, interviews and analysis of school data to measure the impact of AVID during the period 2012-2014. In particular, we will use the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI), developed by Bristol University and an adapted version of the South Australian Teaching for Effective Learning (TfEL) Framework. We are partnered in our research by Incept Labs.

Aims

The project aims to understand the impact of the AVID system and to answer the following questions:

• How does the AVID program raise aspirations and access to university?
• How does this intersect with the students’ own sense of identity and motivation around university aspirations, entry and achievement?
• As a result of participation in the AVID system, what changes occur in terms of the motivation, engagement and metacognitive practices of teachers, pre-service teachers, school leadership and students?
• How does the implementation of AVID contribute to whole school impact?
• Does implementing the AVID system lead to deeper engagement between home, school and the wider community?
• To what extent does AVID reshape the attitudes of families toward the educational system and the opportunities it provides?

The significance of the project will include consideration of :

• Why students from the participating schools have traditionally had a lower expectation of aspiring to and gaining entry into university; and
• Implications for implementing the AVID system more widely in an Australian context.

AVID Australia Summer Institute 2012

VU will host AVID’s Australian professional learning program the AVID Australia Summer Institute from 27-29 November 2012. At least 300 participants are expected to attend from across Australia and the USA including classroom teachers, school leaders, administrators, university teaching staff, teacher educators, policy makers and researchers. Mr Jim Nelson, Executive Director of AVID will be attending, as will other senior staff from AVID in the United States. Staff developers from the USA will co-teach with newly trained Australian staff developers in order to build a cohort of Australian trainers. The emphasis of the training will be on “Opening Doors” for students from low SES, diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds to aspire to, access and be successful at university.

For more information about the AVID Australia project contact Claire Brown on +61 3 9919 4604 or claire.brown@vu.edu.au, or view the AVID website.

Victoria University School Partnerships project

VU School-Partnerships undertakes research and initiatives that aim to increase the number of students moving to post-secondary education through pathways between vocational courses and/or undergraduate degrees.

VU works in partnership with education sectors on projects and programs delivered in a range of partnership models with:

• individual schools
• clusters of schools
• other tertiary providers
• community education groups

Projects are customised to meet each school’s need. They build upon and extend school collaboration from all areas of VU across all courses in Further Education, Vocational Education, Higher Education, as well as the range of student support services and facilities. 

VU School Partnerships seek to engage parents, teachers and the broader community as partners in learning. 

Flag and Follow project

This project is being undertaken with key teaching, administrative and support units at VU. It looks at ways to identify students who are potentially at risk of attrition. These students are then provided with timely, personalised interventions to improve the likelihood of educational access and success at VU.

We are comparing information derived from enrolment data, formative testing and student performance across key indicators. This is being monitored for students deemed to be at risk by relevant academic and professional staff.

We are developing an inter-departmental, collaborative model that has an evidence-based, data-driven approach to informing and implementing student engagement and retention initiatives. 

Student Success and Retention

Professor Joe Cuseo, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Marymount College in Southern California, is a renowned expert in understanding and promoting student success in tertiary study. Professor Cuseo visited VU from July 11-17, 2011 to assist in developing our student success strategies and met with many VU staff to discuss student success and retention. During this time Professor Cuseo gave a public lecture entitled Student Success: How can we define it, measure it and promote it? This visit was coordinated through a partnership between IDEAS and the Office of the Associate PVC, Social Inclusion, and in collaboration with key teaching, administrative and support units at VU.

Professor Cuseo explored with academic, support and administrative staff ways that student success can be promoted at VU through a wide range of methods across the university in higher education and vocational and further education. Professor Cuseo’s work aims to inform our work to improve students' experiences of life at VU both academically and socially. Experience and research tell us that students perform better and are more likely to complete their courses when they feel engaged and connected with their studies, staff, other students and the university more generally.

A presentation was also made by Tony Adams and Associates, authors of the Hobsons Retention Project: Context and factor analysis report, regarding their findings about how retention is promoted in Universities and TAFEs across Australia.

Reports

• Student Success: How can we define it, measure it and promote it? by Professor Joe Cuseo
• Hobsons Retention Project: Context and Factor analysis report by Tony Adams and Associates

School retention through alternative schooling: towards a socially just approach to education

ARC Discovery Project

Administering Organisation: The University of Queensland

This project is concerned with how mainstream schools may become more socially just and inclusive of all young people through an analysis of alternative schools specifically designed for this purpose. Such a concern is critical for lifting school retention rates of marginalised young people and improving practices in all schools.

The project team:
Associate Professor Kitty te Riele, The Victoria Institute
Prof Martin Mills, (Lead CI) University of Queensland
Dr Glenda McGregor, Griffiths University
A/Prof Deb Hayes, University of Sydney

Putting the jigsaw together: innovative learning engagement programs in Australia

Ian Potter Foundation

Associate Professor Kitty te Riele, The Victoria Institute

This project explores 'alternative' education options for marginalised young people through 'innovative learning engagement' or 'flexible learning' programs. Despite the promise offered by such programs, both their practice and research on them have been fragmented. Our Australia-wide research will address this weakness by answering 'who gets what?' as well as 'what works and why?'.

Funding will be used to:

• investigate access to alternative flexible programs across Australia
• analyse the diversity of programs
• analyse outcomes from promising 'good practice' programs
• develop and share implications and resources for enhancing successful educational provision for marginalised young people.

Putting the jigsaw together: innovative learning engagement programs in Australia

The Victoria Institute and Brimbank City Council

This collaborative research project is between the Victoria Institute for Education, Diversity and Lifelong Learning at Victoria University and the Brimbank City Council (St Albans Connect and Youth Services).  As identified by local council and community members, an issue of concern in the St. Albans area is the increasing number of disengaged young people, especially those from low SES and CALD backgrounds.  This research project has two phases which will (1) explore community and civic engagement among young adult community leaders and marginalised young people using an arts-workshop interview methodology and (2) use the findings from the first phase to inform and enhance council’s arts-based outreach initiatives in youth services and to use creative research methodologies to examine the effects of these initiatives.

The project team:
Dr Alison Baker, Research Fellow, The Victoria Institute (Lead CI)
Dr Andy Brader, Adjunct Fellow, The Victoria Institute & Senior Youth Worker, St. Joseph’s Flexible Learning Centre
Thea Bates, Community Planning and Engagement Officer, St Albans Connect, Brimbank City Council
Charlotte Hilder, Youth Arts & Events Officer, VISY Cares Youth Hub, Brimbank City Council