Core Elements

Academic Challenge

Ford PAS offers challenging academic content:

• Articulates clear learning goals for each activity
• Connects teachers and students with the same kinds of work that engage professionals
• Connects important ideas within—and across—disciplines

Ford PAS was created in alignment with national standards:

• Identifies national standards that are taught and assessed, and those that are applied
• Currently aligning to specific states' standards (This work is completed or in process in California, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Tennessee.)

The Ford PAS curriculum is interdisciplinary:

• Students integrate and apply knowledge and skills from different content areas
• Requires, and develops, flexibility in drawing on appropriate disciplinary knowledge

Skills for Success

Ford PAS teaches skills essential for success in college and careers:

• Critical thinking
• Problem-solving
• Teamwork
• Communication

Students develop increasing sophistication in applying these skills over the course of the curriculum.

Real-World Learning

Ford PAS grounds learning in the real world in a variety of ways:

• Gives students direct experience of how their classroom learning will enable them to engage in both future study and rewarding careers
• Equips students to use technology as an essential tool in the ways that people in business and professions use it: to conduct research, organize and analyze data, simulate complex systems, and communicate information and ideas
• Enables students to interact with people from business, higher education, and community organizations
• Takes students onto college campuses, into businesses, and into the community as part of their learning experiences