SWAMPSCOTT — Swampscott High School students entering 9th grade in 2021 will be able to participate in an advanced manufacturing pathway, Principal Dennis Kohut announced last Wednesday.
At last week’s School Committee meeting, Kohut explained that the engineering-related track within the school was developed as part of the state’s Innovation Pathways program.
“We’ve talked about this for years: how can we provide an opportunity for kids who aren’t on that traditional college-bound path?” Kohut said. “We also want to be able to create highly engaging programming at the high school.”
Students who take part in the program will take two or more classes related to engineering technology and design through the high school. They will also be required to take two or more advanced courses, either Advanced Placement courses at the school or college-level courses at North Shore Community College, and complete a 100-hour internship with a local company.
“There’s a strong emphasis on project-based learning. Students will have many opportunities to design, to create and build using applications in engineering, technology and construction,” Kohut said. “The goal here is to provide students with a more in-depth understanding of specific career fields and also to give them experience both in and out of the classroom.”
Students who do not take part in the advanced manufacturing pathway will be allowed to take these courses as electives.
The Innovation Pathway program, developed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, identifies in-demand jobs in the region that a school serves in order to prepare students to enter the workforce. Other tracks that are offered throughout the state include business and finance, information technology, health care, and environmental and life science.
As of April 2020, the state had approved 36 districts to offer Innovation Pathways to their students.
Swampscott students who want to participate will be able to apply for the program during their eighth grade year to start during their freshman year of high school, or can apply later to begin in 10th grade.
The district has not yet established the application criteria, but Emily Zotto-Barnum, chair of the high school’s Guidance Department, said that there will not be a minimum grade level, and the application will instead focus on prospective students’ enthusiasm for the program.
“In doing so, we hope to really cultivate that sense of belonging and that cohort feel,” Zotto-Barnum said. “So although more than the cohort will be taking the pathway and program classes, there will be that community belonging feeling.”
