iLEAD Academy opened three years ago to help prepare Northern Kentucky students for careers in high-paying, high-demand fields. It uses a wonky weapon – labor-market data – to design course offerings that won’t leave students in dead-end jobs, and to give them solid advice that’s grounded in the needs of regional employers.
Read the story on edweek.org
Photos by Pat McDonogh for Education Week
The iLEAD Academy is located a few doors down from a grocery store in a Carrollton, Ky., shopping center, and in front of the local Walmart.
As a future high school science teacher, Michaela Stethen, an iLEAD junior, knows that she can get an annual salary of $37,358. But she must earn a bachelor’s degree first.
Otilio Flores, another iLEAD student, earned his industrial-maintenance-technician certification at the end of his sophomore year. With a high school diploma in addition, he could be an industrial maintenance tech and earn nearly $37,000 a year. But Otilio is pursuing an associate degree so he can earn thousands more as an electro-mechanical technician.
Student Storm Mitchell wants to work in robotics and travel internationally. She could earn more than $81,000 as a robotics technician if she goes on to earn a bachelor’s degree.
Johnny Rivera discusses an algebra problem with classmates at iLEAD Academy.
Math instructor Jenna Gray works with sophomore Isaac Logsdon on an Algebra 2 problem.
Junior Josiah Miracle stares intently at a problem on his computer screen during an Algebra 2 class.
Sophomore Johnny Rivera photographs a bench that he is in the midst of 3D modeling.
Dawson Allen, a junior at iLEAD Academy, works on his laptop in the lobby of his school. The school doesn’t have typical classrooms; students are free to lounge and work throughout the building.