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 aligned to several states' specific standards

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:

• Application of academic knowledge and skills
• Problem-solving
• Critical thinking
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Creativity and innovation
• Global awareness

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

The key skills that students learn and the key teaching strategies that teachers employ throughout the curriculum are listed in the Pillars of Ford PAS document.