Many former high school students might recall a regular, if bizarre rite of passage: dissecting a frog during biology class. At Pima JTED, or joint technological education district, a new vocational school in Tucson, Arizona, students won’t just examine amphibians, but perform real veterinary surgeries, and even get training that will help them become a nurse.
With the new, 55,000-square-foot, $24 million Mel & Enid Zuckerman Center for Health and Medical Careers fully opening in October, many of the roughly 1,800 Pima JTED students will be able to get certified as licensed nursing assistants, medical assistants, pharmacy technicians and approved veterinary assistants. The goal is to provide ”cutting-edge frontline training with frontline technology,” says the school’s Director of Research & Development Merrill Kemp-Wilcox, part of a new wave of unique programs in career and technical education (CTE).
“I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, shop class was where the bad kids went to smoke cigarettes in the back of the classroom and then make a birdhouse or something,” said Kemp-Wilcox. “This kind of education has changed dramatically, especially in the healthcare space.”
One of the first health and medical high schools in the country, with a focus on helping the underserved, Pima JTED represents what Knox-Wilcox says is a unique, cutting-edge opportunity to broaden student experience and get them exposed to a new career pathway. The construction of this new facility represents the latest health-related philanthropic investment from the Zuckerman family, who also endowed the University of Arizona’s health school. The late Mel Zuckerman founded Canyon Ranch, a pioneering wellness resort.
By centralizing this kind of education in one place, JTED can offer more specialized, advanced instruction with better facilities. Medical staff and teachers from the University of Arizona and Pima Community College will help teach medical and veterinary skills. There’s an acute care center run by a local community clinic, with real doctors assisted by high school students, and new training tools, such as realistic dummies that can throw up and allow students to draw blood. The vet care and surgery center will even allow them to operate under supervision on dogs and cats. There’s even a theater room with medical gear and cameras that allows students to watch others perform.
JTED isn’t a traditional high school. Part of a district within the wider Tucson public school system, JTED has a system of campus and satellite schools embedded within different regional high schools. Students can enroll for free for a certification or vocational education program through their local high school, on a first-come-first-serve basis for many programs; programs are free for anybody in the school district who is under 22 and hasn’t earned a high school diploma or GED. Students typically take high school, and then attend classes after school at JTED.
With standardized testing taking up an increasing segment of the school day, and educational and cultural trends focusing on four-year degrees and digital technology, the American shop class began disappearing in the ‘90s. Today, the lack of that kind of hands-on learning has been one of the main reasons given for the nation’s shortage of skilled tradesmen. Surveys find that a large portion of today’s high school students, 30% to 40% , don’t plan on attending four-year universities, and an estimated 30 million well-paying jobs don’t require a bachelor’s degree. Industries such as construction and health care, which has suffered significantly from pandemic burnout.
In recent years, there’s been a push to incorporate more STEM education into high school, with an increasing array of new programs and facilities meant to teach adolescents about robotics, mechanics, and other technical skills. All of these can also be found at Pima JTED, including classes geared towards programming and even the basics of AI. But the medical focus offers something unique.
Advocates point to the way that these types of vocational and career-focused programs not only provide alternative career pathways, but better educational outcomes. Tucson has a higher-than average high school dropout rate of 32%. But the roughly 22,000 students at JTED, drawn from 14 districts across the city, boast a 98% graduation rate and 80% job placement rate.
“One of the questions that we are trying to answer for, is that a lot of our industries really need a large-scale solution for their workforce shortage,” said Kemp-Wilcox.