The Partnership for Achieving Successful Schools (PASS)
The Partnership for Achieving Successful Schools (PASS) Initiative began in 2003 under the administrationof Governor Mark Warner in an effort to provide assistance to Virginia schools having difficulty reaching success on accreditation and adequateyearly progress (AYP) benchmarks. During this first year, PASS received national recognition from the Southern Growth Policies Board for Leadership Development and Civic Engagement.
PASS features specific intervention strategies that have been used effectively in high-poverty rural and urban schools in Virginia. During the early years of PASS, the initiative provided individual schools with technical assistance including onsite coaches to work directly with the principal and school leadership team. With the success rate of this early model, each year the Office of School Improvement (OSI) assesses the needs of all of schools and divisions in improvement and adjusts the PASS initiative accordingly.
Today, PASS continues to be the primary source of service and technical assistance provided by the OSI. It has evolved from initially providing assistance to school principals into a complex, sophisticated technical assistance model. A major focus is now helping school divisions build capacity at the division level in order to be better prepared in assisting with meeting the needs of their individual schools that are in improvement.
OSI is committed to serving more than seventy-five divisions and over two hundred schools with assistance that is unique to their individual needs. In order to differentiate technical assistance to meet individual needs, the OSI is making available a full range of options including:
- Breaking Ranks K-12 training for all principals entering school improvement who have not participated in previous training
- Differentiated technical assistance for divisions and schools
- Division capacity building through the College of William and Mary
- Division and school improvement planning training via Indistar™
- Lead Turnaround Partner cohorts for qualifying divisions and schools
- Technical assistance for high schools accredited with warning due to graduation rate.
Additionally, very important partnerships with a variety of outside contractors and organizations have been formed over the years as an outgrowth of the PASS initiative. Each partnership greatly assists the efforts of the OSI to support divisions and schools in need. Those partnerships include:
- Experienced school and division administrators including former superintendents who serve as webinar instructors, high school liaisons, division liaisons, lead turnaround facilitators, and providers of direct technical assistance
- The Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center (ARCC)
- The Center on Innovation and Improvement (CII)
- The Virginia Foundation for Educational Leadership (VFEL)
- The Virginia Association for Secondary School Principals (VASSP)
- The College of William and Mary
- National High School Center
- CaseNex, LLC (DataCation)
- The Virginia Association for Elementary School Principals (VAESP)
PASS is leading a VDOE Intra-agency Technical Assistance Team. This team will serve as an arm of the VDOE Statewide System of Support with the primary role of assisting the Office of School Improvement with identifying and implementing differentiated technical assistance to school divisions with schools in school improvement. The purpose of the team will be to share information about resources and technical assistance to better coordinate VDOE support of schools.
For additional information or questions regarding the Partnership for Achieving Successful Schools (PASS)please contact Michael Hill at the Office of School Improvement at 804-225-2665 or by e-mail at Michael.Hill@doe.virginia.gov .
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