Graduating high school seniors who are college and career ready has become a focal point of our nation. The Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program has been preparing college and career ready students who are first generation college-going students, from subgroups traditionally underrepresented in higher education, and from lower-socio-economic families since 1980. The success of the high school AVID program has been well documented, particularly on the west coast. The research for this paper investigated the success of one middle school AVID program in a large district on the east coast. We hypothesized that the students from School District BC who participated in AVID in the 8th grade during the 2013-2014 school year met with greater achievement than those who did not participate in AVID. Achievement was defined in two broad categories; cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. Cognitive outcomes were defined as having higher scores on the College Board's ReadiSTEP test, and higher grade point averages in the fourth quarter. Non-cognitive outcomes were defined as having better attendance and lower suspension rates. The results of this study were mixed. Students who participated in the AVID program during the 2013-2014 school year performed at a higher level than their non-AVID peers on the cognitive, academic-based hypotheses. They scored higher, on average, on the ReadiSTEP test than their colleagues; they also had higher fourth quarter GPAs than their non-AVID colleagues. The AVID students did not, however, show a statistically significant difference in the two non-cognitive hypotheses -- attendance or suspension rates -- than their non-AVID colleagues. Despite the fact that the results of this study are mixed, there is evidence to support the implementation of the AVID program in middle schools, especially on the cognitive indicators, as well as in high schools.