Funded by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, this project was designed to trial a collaborative approach to enhance implementation of the AVID professional learning system for school improvement by improving culture, learning and teaching and systems in order to improve student outcomes in four regional schools. The project was originally funded to run from 2018- 2020. However, due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic early in 2020, project implementation was extended until 2021 in consultation with participating schools and the funding body, the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust.

In 2018, four Victorian government secondary schools began implementing AVID. Two schools (Schools 1 and 2) were co-located in one regional city, while the others (Schools 3 and 4) were co-located in another. Project funding enabled participating schools to send staff to national AVID conferences (Summer Institute) in Melbourne in 2018 and 2019 and to access two days of school-based professional learning and on-demand coaching from expert AVID coaches each year. Funding also supported the project research reported here.

This project would not have been possible without the financial support of the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, for which the AVID Australia team is very grateful.

This research report drew on a summary of implementation interviews and reports on 2019 interview analysis prepared by Dr Camilla Nicoll, who conducted interviews in 2019. Using existing data, Dr Juliana Ryan developed the findings presented in this report. Thanks to Professor Lyndal Bond for overseeing design and implementation of the project research.

Most importantly, special thanks to the four participating schools for contributing to the research component of the project and, since 2019, for continuing to implement the AVID system of school improvement and related professional learning beyond the term of the project.

Dr Claire Brown