The Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies: A New Case for Curriculum Integration in Technology Education

The Ford Motor Company launched a new pre-engineering curriculum for high schools in the Fall of 2004. Building on an earlier manufacturing program, the development process for the Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies took approximately three years. Ford and the course designers wanted the new program to incorporate the best principles and practices of technical/technology education at the secondary level. Therefore a conscious effort was made to integrate national curriculum standards in the design phase; in addition, there are explicit connections in the instructional materials between the academic and technical content for both teachers and students. This article reviews the rationale and the strategies for academic integration, and shows how the new Ford program is a prominent example of effective curriculum development in technology education. The product of this process is a coherent series of five courses that are educationally sound and that address national standards in academics, technology, and engineering.