Ford PAS Professional Development Institute 2009

EDINBURG - Educators from Edinburg and San Benito Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) gathered from August 4-7 to participate in the South Texas Ford PAS Professional Development Institute 2009.

This four-day training has been designed to empower teachers with the resources needed to improve teaching effectiveness by adopting useful tools such as the Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (PAS) curriculum in their classrooms.

During the event, teachers and administrators participated in dynamic Ford PAS activities that promote project-based learning aligned with real-world applications. Over 45 educators participated in the event where they actively participated in a variety of hands-on activities that stimulate classroom learning and emphasize a college readiness culture.

"It is important for us as a school district to get our students to be college-ready," said Maria Luisa Guerra, assistant superintendent of Edinburg CISD. "It is no longer enough students graduate from our high school; we want them to be successful in any university program."

The Ford PAS program is an academically rigorous college readiness curriculum and program funded by the Ford Motor Company Fund which established its South Texas Ford PAS Hub in partnership with the ENCORE program, a college readiness program developed by Texas Valley Communities Foundation. ENCORE and Ford Motor Company Fund developed the South Texas Ford PAS Professional Development Institute (PDI) 2009 to provide educators with resources to support and improve student engagement in the classroom, while creating consciousness about the importance of college readiness.

The Ford PAS PDI 2009 also focused on promoting coordinated learning experiences (CLE) to help students and teachers understand how problem-solving, communication, teamwork and critical thinking skills are applied in today's workforce. A CLE is a learning opportunity for students and teachers to visit with business/community leaders and make connections between what they are learning in the classroom and the real-world.

By scheduling company visits and/or in-class presentations from experts in different career fields, students participating in the Ford PAS program and CLE activities will learn in depth about a variety of career paths and find, in the experts, a possible career mentor.

"CLE experiences help students bringing relevance between school work and the respective real-world application," said Ernesto Villarreal, ENCORE program director. He concluded "The Ford PAS curriculum allows students to research different career paths by working on hands-on real-world cases where they envision their future workplace."

During the Ford PAS PDI 2009, educators participated in a variety of sessions during the institute that encouraged them to concentrate on the importance of understanding school culture, project-based learning, inquiry-based teaching and improving teacher effectiveness through the incorporation of college readiness pillars in the classroom.

On day two of the institute, high school students from McAllen ISD and Edinburg CISD shared with over 45 participants their experiences with the Ford PAS program and how the Ford PAS curriculum prepares them to be college and career ready.

"During the institute, teachers were able to see and to think how they can implement the Ford PAS curriculum into their classrooms," Guerra said. "By listening to these students, teachers started to think: 'this could be my student'."

Guerra said that she believes the Ford PAS program brings out the talents each student has and have been oblivious to the teachers and even students themselves.

"There is no doubt that when students are engaged in the Ford PAS activities, they change the way they see the future," she said. "With the Ford PAS curriculum, the students are the ones discovering and doing the critical thinking and the teachers become the facilitators in the classroom."

One of the students participating in the training was Victoria Valdez, 16, junior at Edinburg High School who started in the Ford PAS program when she was a freshman.

"Our biology teacher asked us to work on a Ford PAS project," Valdez said. "Later, people from the program came to our classroom to film us while working on the assignment. They selected two students to speak in from of the camera and they chose me."

Valdez, who impressed more than one of the participants at the institute with her confidence and presentation skills, says that it was thanks to the Ford PAS program that she managed to develop her academic and individual talents as she continues to prepare in the process of college readiness. Valdez concluded: "I use to be a really shy student, but after going through the Ford PAS Program, I learned that you cannot do that [shy] anymore. You have to work in groups, get teamwork, get going and introduce your ideas and don't be afraid to say them out loud".

Ford PAS is built around learning pillars that correspond to the essential skills identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a framework that brings together the business community, education leaders and policymakers to define a vision for 21st century education, that complement and support national academic standards.

"With the new state regulations and college readiness standards, I see how the Ford PAS modules and activities are so well align to what the state is telling us as a school district we should be doing in the classrooms," Guerra said.

On the last day of the South Texas Ford PAS Professional Development Institute, each educator adopted a student they consider to need their assistance and also committed to continue working toward the betterment of education in the Valley through to support of innovative college readiness programs such as Ford PAS and ENCORE.

"We are working hard to improve education in our region," Villarreal said. "Here in the Valley, we have one of the largest Ford PAS Hubs in the country. We started a new innovative approach last year by taking the Ford PAS program to the middle school level, a curriculum that was designed for grades 9-13 ".

The South Texas Ford PAS PDI 2009 successfully accomplished its mission by introducing teachers to the latest college readiness standards and tools to prepare them for the next generation learning. A personal follow-up session with each participant has been tentatively scheduled for September where educators will have the opportunity to review the Ford PAS implementation plans and curriculum alignment in their classrooms with the assistance of the Ford PAS team.