
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 20, 1995                   TAG: 9501200062
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: FAIRFAX                                LENGTH: Medium

FAIRFAX TO REQUIRE WORK EXPERIENCE FOR STUDENTS

At one end of Chantilly High School in Fairfax County, 18-year-old Rich Rogers was sanding tables in a noisy, high-ceilinged workshop, doing the sort of work that he hopes to find after graduation.

Upstairs in another part of the school, honor student Kristen Ford, who plans to go to college, was talking with a teacher about her Spanish homework and other course work as she carried an overloaded book bag through carpeted hallways.

Students such as Rogers and Ford traditionally have rarely crossed academic paths. But now Fairfax school officials plan to bring such teen-agers together more often, saying that both need to be better prepared for careers in an increasingly unpredictable work world.

Last week, the county School Board approved a plan to require all students to have workplace experience - either as interns, volunteers or paid employees - before graduating. Under the plan, college-bound students will be expected to take an expanded range of technical classes, such as electronics and computer graphics, and vocational students will have to take more advanced math and science.

It's an ambitious approach that mirrors similar efforts across the nation, and Fairfax school officials are certain that many parents will object to a requirement that their children take technical classes. But officials say eventually it will make Fairfax's curriculum more relevant to the school system's 140,000 students.

The plan in Fairfax came out of a 13-month study and follows a call last year for such action from U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, who said that American students risk becoming irrelevant without changes in what they learn. Riley urged school systems to work more closely with industry and business leaders.

The Fairfax plan will be phased in beginning with staff training in the fall of 1996, and with the requirement for work-related experience for students beginning in some schools the following fall. The plan has been embraced by most school officials.

by CNB