Three Pasadena ISD secondary campuses received exciting news on Thursday, September 6, 2007 when Michael & Susan Dell Foundation representative, Lori Fey, awarded $20,000 for outstanding campus participation in the Advanced Placement Strategies program. Thompson and Jackson Intermediate Schools shared the $10,000 award for intermediate schools and Dobie High School received the high school $10,000 award. The grants were given to those campuses with the most participation in training programs and vertical team meetings, use of diagnostics tests, participation
 in end-of-course exams and improvement in programs.

Teachers from across Pasadena ISD secondary schools joined Advanced Placement (AP) Strategies Inc. for back-to-school training in their subject areas to provide new methods and materials for teaching the AP, or college prep, courses. Pasadena ISD has been involved in the AP Strategies program for three years with the assistance of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. During that time the number of students taking and passing AP courses and exams has increased significantly. “Our teachers have done a tremendous job of using new methods to recruit and teach students,” explains Pat Sermas, director of Advanced Academics and Assessment. “The grants offered by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation that made the AP Strategies Program possible are invaluable in providing support for our staff and making it possible for more of our students to take the tests. In addition, lead teachers such as Patricia Cain, Kathleen Murrell and Paul Gutierrez have been tremendous in-house resources for our teachers.”