2.0: BETTER TO LIGHT A CANDLE

Chattanooga 2.0 officials trotted out a slew of numbers Thursday to show the impact the movement has made in attempting — ultimately — to increase the post-secondary school degrees, certificates and credentials obtained by Hamilton County residents in order to give them a better life.

After one year, the success is modest but wide and growing. But what if there had been no attempt?

Without Chattanooga 2.0, launched in December 2015, as an impetus, many fewer parents would have access to the critical importance of pre-kindergarten education, the Hamilton County school district may have lost a year in placing emphases on literacy and math, area businesses might not have been as quick to partner with the school district for school-to-work pathways and additional faith-based organizations may not have sought to come alongside individual schools to help their students achieve success.

If a year had passed since the effort’s vision and strategies had been announced and 2.0 officials were still talking how they planned to make an impact in the future, their chances of seeing any of that impact would have been minimal.

Fortunately, Chattanooga 2.0’s strategies were measurable, so outcomes couldn’t be hidden — not that anyone would want to. In fact, they are many.

We were particularly heartened, given the movement’s post-secondary goals, of the 216 high school students and young adults who have received a market value industry credential in the last year.

Meanwhile, 250 students are involved in the Volkswagen Mechatronics Academy, Gestamp’s “12 for Life” program or the district’s Polytechnic Academy at Chattanooga State Community College.

But, beyond workforce development, there are successes throughout the birth-to-young adult continuum Chattanooga 2.0 spans.

For instance, 100 percent of families of newborns at Erlanger and Parkridge hospitals received a visit from a volunteer, who will introduce them to strategies that best stimulate early learning, sign them up for text messages to give them tools to help their child be ready for kindergarten and enroll them in the Dolly Parton-sponsored Imagination Library that sends their child age-appropriate books.

Further, 773 literacy labs were hosted in the district’s kindergarten through eighth-grade schools during the school year to assist students in reading; priority school Brainerd High improved its attendance from 84.2 percent to 87.6 percent with school-based strategies; and 51 district schools are now paired with an assisting faith-based institution.

The district has some 44,000 students, so Chattanooga 2.0’s reach isn’t what it one day will be. But what if the initiative were never attempted? We’re thankful its officials lit a candle instead of cursing the darkness.