Health-care career classes will help Asheville High students get jobs

ASHEVILLE - The basics of education used to be reading, writing and arithmetic.

These days, education reformers say high school students need three different Rs to succeed: rigor, relationships and relevancy.

So educators at Asheville City Schools want to try something new. They're planning a health science career academy at Asheville High School that they hope will better prepare students for today's job market. It's scheduled to start in fall 2005.

Kyler McClure, a 17-year-old junior at Asheville High, said she wishes the academy started sooner so she could enroll.

"Right now, we're such a big school, kids get overlooked," McClure said. "This will bring a sense of community and build closer relationships between students and teachers. And by making career connections in high school, students will be more inclined to come back after college and establish their lives and careers here."

Career academies are like a school within a school. They usually have between 150 and 200 students. Classes are organized around a career theme, such as construction management, communications or health sciences. Academy students take all their classes together, and academy teachers usually work together as an autonomous team.

But academy students can follow different paths after graduation. They can take classes that will help them get a job immediately or advanced classes to prepare for college.

"We just want a pool of well-educated, bright students who are prepared for today's job market," said Robert Logan, superintendent of Asheville City Schools. "We've got to have something to replace furniture, textiles and tobacco. Service jobs are not going to replace those higher-paying jobs that are leaving."

Logan said a health sciences academy is the best choice for Asheville High because Mission Hospitals is the largest employer in Western North Carolina.

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