CLEVELAND — The American Federation of Teachers is three months into their “Real Solutions for Kids and Communities” campaign designed to highlight and celebrate programs around the national that help kids recover from the pandemic and thrive.
Tuesday morning, AFT President Randi Weingarten visited Cleveland’s Lincoln-West School of Science & Health to observe students learning in a high school on a hospital campus.
“This is a first in the nation,” Weingarten says. “This kind of facility where you have health care career paths starting in high school on a hospital campus is really the design of the future.”
Weingarten wasn’t the only heavy hitter in education touring the Cleveland high school within MetroHealth. Dr. Amy Lloyd, the assistant secretary of the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education for the U.S. Department of Education and a delegation of leaders from local and state teachers’ unions also observed the program.
At this branch of Lincoln-West, traditional curriculum is combined with interactive learning in a health care setting. Weingarten says this example of experiential learning creates huge opportunities for kids in health care.
“(It) is a fantastic illustration of public schooling and business, here (at MetroHealth) health care, working together to create the pipelines for employment and for careers today and tomorrow.”
Cheyenne Morningstar, a 2022 Lincoln-West graduate, says she was able to become a state tested nurse aide at the age of 17 because of her studies at the school.
“This program is what kick-started my career,” Morningstar says. “There are so many students who would thrive with this opportunity.”
Morningstar has been working as a nurse assistant at Metro since January.
“Our focus areas and goals as a district has been making sure our high schools have pathways to careers,” says new Cleveland Schools CEO Dr. Warren Morgan. “This is an example of one where there could be schools without walls. Where our kids could get out of the traditional school setting and actually get some of that experiential learning … It's great that others can see it. Hopefully we can think about the expansion of programs like this.”
Experiential learning is one of the five strategies the AFT is highlighting during their year-long campaign. Union leaders say those strategies include:
- Unlocking the power and possibility that come from being a confident reader.
- Catalyzing a vast expansion of community schools that meaningfully partner with families.
- Ensuring that all children have opportunities to learn by doing—engaging in experiential learning, including career and technical education.
- Caring for young people’s mental health and well-being, including by demanding that social media companies protect, not prey on, children.
- Fighting for the teaching and support staff and the resources students need to thrive.
The AFT is investing $5 million into the “Real Solutions for Kids and Communities” campaign, which also includes ads running in the Northeast Ohio market through Wednesday, October 25 and grants to AFT affiliates, parent groups and community organizations “engaged in grassroots work within local communities.”
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