Sullivan development group suggests tutoring program for parents

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Starting a tutoring program for parents is one way to improve the region’s educational attainment levels and its overall economic picture.

The tutoring program is one of a number of suggestions developed by a Sullivan County economic development group to address one of its biggest worries – that the region’s work force isn’t skilled or educated enough to fill the jobs it’s working to attract.

Parents taking part in the tutoring program would learn Algebra and other subjects they may have forgotten or never had, said Linda Calvert, Northeast State Community College’s director of college readiness programs.

She said the programs, which are called “parent resource centers,” would help the parents teach these subjects to their children and in turn help their children learn and do better in school.

“Being a parent doesn’t come with a manual,” Calvert said as she presented her idea during a work force development and education forum hosted Thursday by the NETWORKS-Sullivan Partnership. “These programs would back them up.”

Only 19.8 percent of the county’s population has a four-year college degree, according to the U.S. Census, and only 81.9 percent has a high school diploma or GED. These figures fall well below the national averages of 27.4 percent and 87.4 percent, respectively.

They also can hamper some of the efforts NETWORKS – an economic development partnership funded by Bristol, Bluff City, Kingsport and Sullivan County’s local governments – has made to bring new and better-paying jobs to the region.

“Education and economic development move along parallel tracks: you cannot separate the two,” said former Kingsport Mayor Jeannette Blazier, who organized the event along with former NETWORKS Chairman Keith Wilson.

Calvert’s idea to start a parent resource program in the county was one of several suggestions the forum’s participants came up with to help bolster the region’s education system and improve attainment levels. Other ideas mentioned during the meeting included:
* Getting the county involved in a possible state-sponsored “early college program” that would give students the ability to get an associate degree or two years of college credit when they graduate from high school;
* Running an extensive marketing campaign that would promote both the importance of getting an advanced degree and the resources available to help people reach this goal;
* Expanding the region’s GED programs so they can help more students while also opening more GED testing and classroom sites that are convenient to both mass transportation and day-care centers;
* Extending the traditional school day or year so students have more time in class and can better prepare to meet the state’s new graduation requirements and go to college or learn a skill;
* Putting together a directory of area manufacturers and businesses that explains what entry-level jobs are available and what skills and level of education prospective applicants need to get the jobs;
* Creating a special “adopt-a-school” program that would create a direct partnership between local schools and businesses.

At the end of Thursday’s meeting, Wilson said NETWORKS’ executive committee will review each suggestion over the next few weeks and come up with ways to put them into effect.

“Some of these things are already under way,” he said. Board members have already lobbied the region’s state legislators to support the “early college” program in the coming year’s budget and use a local school system as a possible pilot program if it’s funded, he said.

gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518