A group of national education leaders visited Lincoln-West School of Science and Health located inside MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland on Thursday.
The American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest teacher’s union in the country, made the visit as part of a national tour highlighting education models that provide career paths for students.
Officials watched as Lincoln-West students practiced packing bullet wounds and making tourniquets on mannequins, a lesson that’s typical for seniors. Students at this school attend their regular classes and are also trained by emergency room doctors and ultrasound technicians, who expose them to different health care careers and related careers in human resources, finance and information technology.
AFT president Randi Weingarten said she was impressed with how the school matches students with mentors and guides them on their chosen career paths.
“Our young people should have a right to not being cynical and jaded and should be able to lean into their creativity and their innovation,” she said. “What a school like this does is create agency.”
Weingarten hopes more schools will involve professional training as part of their offerings, since data shows students with those programs in their schools have high graduation rates and go to college. MetroHealth said more than 90% of Lincoln West students graduate.
“Pathways like cyber security, like chip technicians … all these health care jobs, there’s so much that can be done,” Weingarten said. “But we have, I think, an obligation to bring it to kids. The way you do that is do that in high school.”
