Benefits of PASS
Benefits for Your School
By implementing the PASS program, your school will benefit from:
- More graduates who understand personal responsibility and who have the skills for lifelong learning.
- Students who are better able to perform up to their potential.
- Cohesiveness among diverse students who otherwise would not have opportunities for interaction.
- Improved student leadership abilities that affect the rest of the student body.
- Increased school revenue due to improved student attendance.
- Strengthened faculty capacity for problem solving and leadership by infusing new principles and strategies for improving education.
- Rekindled enthusiasm and commitment of professional staff.
Cost/Benefit Analysis
For administrators concerned with keeping students in school, PASS can help. Students in school translate into revenue. In California, based on students in membership, revenue per student is estimated at $4,799* annually. Consider these two scenarios for September, 1998:
Scenario 1: Dan is a sophomore who complains that school is just not interesting; it doesn't motivate him. During his sophomore year, he attends 70% of the time, cuts classes, and gets into a lot of trouble. His junior year he drops out all together. He never graduates.
Scenario 2: Barbara is also a sophomore who is floundering in school. In her sophomore year, she gets into the PASS class which instills the attitudes, knowledge, and skills that enable her to successfully complete school and graduate in June 2001.
* Source: National Center for Education Statistics. The figures are subject to adjustment and will vary by school.
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The chart shows the revenue to the school when one student has 70% attendance during his sophomore year and drops out in his junior year compared to the revenue to the school when one student participates in the PASS class, stays in school, and graduates three years later. |
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Assuming the instructor teaches PASS for five years and each year a minimum of one student stays in school as a result of the PASS class, the scenario is repeated each year. The chart to the left compares revenue at the end of the senior year for three of each type of student. |
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It will cost the school $6,500 to train a PASS teacher, plus a renewal fee of $300 per section for each subsequent year of offering PASS. Compare this investment with the financial return to the school for keeping just one student per year in school over the first five years. Total revenue is calcuated from the time the first Barbara graduates to when the third Barbara graduates. |
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Benefits for Educational Reform
The PASS program addresses a number of important educational reform issues, including:
- Project-Based Curriculum — The PASS class is a year-long project where each student develops and implements a strategy for reaching individualized academic and physical goals.
- Assessment Strategies — The PASS teacher regularly observes and thoroughly rates student performance. Students also evaluate their own performance and keep track of their work in a portfolio that includes individualized goals, action plans, monitoring procedures, and certificates of achievement.
- Linkage Between Kinesthetic Learning and Academic Success — PASS challenges students to take the fundamentals that make athletes successful and to apply these fundamentals to their own academic and physical pursuits.
- Cooperative Learning — PASS capitalizes on the positive aspects and collaborative nature of sport culture by emphasizing teamwork in the classroom.
- The integration of subject areas, including language arts, social studies, psychology, philosophy, and physical education.
- Contact Between the School and Home — The PASS program has regularly-scheduled parent/guardian meetings and ongoing home contact through status reports, letters, and phone calls.
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