Six Years of PASS ©
(Partners Advancing Student Success©)

In September of 1999, Motorola decided that it needed to re-design its Motorola Ambassadors Program for teachers. They fully believed in the mission on intergrating workplan skills into the classroom, but needed to streamline the current program. So, together with APS, they brought together a core group of people to brainstorm the re-design: a principal, district curriculum person, district evaluation member, previous Ambassador program participants from an elementary and a high schools, employees of Motorola and APS.

The product of these discussions resulted in PASS© (Partners Advancing Student Success). The final outcomes of these sessions were presented in May of 2000, and two programs were facilitated in the summer of 2001– one with Scottsdale Unified School District and a second one with Phoenix Union High School District and Chandler Unified School District.

PASS© is a professional development opportunity for K-12 academic teachers, designed with the purpose of addressing the gap between business and education. Facilitated by Communities In Schools of Arizona on behalf of our founding partners, Motorola and APS, the program brings education and business together to share ideas about how best to incorporate the Arizona Academic Workplace Skills Standards into the classroom. Throughout the program, teachers and business leaders gain an appreciation of the expectations and challenges that each face.

The week-long training takes place during the summer break and consists of Arizona Workplace Skills Standards training, learning exchanges hosted by businesses, team building activities, business panels, corporate training examples and action planning. By the end of the training week, teachers have visited at least five different business sites and interacted with at least 10 different business leaders from various industries. All participants have the opportunity to participate in at least one small-business learning exchange where they learn about running a small business and entrepreneurship.

Over the last 5 years, 365 teachers from 18 districts have participated in the weeklong PASS© experience. In addition, Scottsdale Unified School District sponsored an “Executive PASS© “ session for 10 high school and middle school administrators in November of 2002. More than 300 businesses have participated in PASS©, hosting teachers, being presenters on panels or facilitating corporate training for participants.

Communities In Schools of Arizona is proud to facilitate the PASS© program on behalf of our founding partners, Motorola and APS. The belief of both of these corporate partners in the importance of quality education for students in Arizona in order to build our state’s economic vitality is commendable. Thanks Motorola and APS for your vision and commitment to Arizona's students!