Advanced Academic Strategies

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Advanced Academic Strategies (AAS) is a nationally recognized and locally required elective class for sophomores in Cypress-Fairbanks I.S.D. located in Houston, Texas. AAS has been required of all high school students graduating from any school in CFISD, and is considered a foundational course for learning about college and career options.

History

AAS began as a conceptual idea in the spring of 1980 when teachers Mrs. Amy King and Mr. James Wells decided that students needed more information about post-secondary options. After spending several months looking for a specialized program to meet their students’ needs and not finding one, they decided to work together to create a specialized curriculum that has since morphed into what is now known as AAS. Due to its immense popularity, many schools across America have patterned a class similar to the AAS curriculum for their own students.

Content

Students who take AAS are required to do so for an entire school year. During the nine months of AAS students are exposed to spend the first semester researching various careers. The sixteen different career clusters, as defined by TEA (Texas Education Association) are used as a roadmap for students to explore. Many guest speakers are brought into the classroom to talk about various career options. Some such speakers have included Dr. Amber Stephens, a cardiac specialist from Texas Children's Hospital who invented the electrical CPR method, and Mr. Douglas Harbrueger, a business owner and inventor of the slurpee machine. During the second semester of AAS, students explore various colleges and universities that they might be interested in attending after high school. Students talk field trip to various Universities and Colleges located in Texas. Additionally, students are required to attend a spring break trip to New England to visit various Ivy League schools.

Success

AAS has helped thousands of Cypress-Fairbanks graduates attend post-secondary schools of their choice, as well as helped prepare them for their chosen careers. President Barack Obama has reportedly used the CFISD AAS model as an example of how future classes on post-secondary options should be introduced to secondary students.^{[citation needed]} In the spring of 2011 AAS is scheduled to undergo a re-design so that international trips can be included instead of the New England trip during spring break.

AAS Today

Since the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, Cypress Fairbanks ISD changed AAS to a course called PACE: Personal, Academic, and Career Exploration. AAS and PACE are similar, but there are some curriculum changes. PACE is a required course for all high school freshmen in the Cy-Fair District.

References

• www.cfisd.net

External links

• [1]