In one way, Chattanooga is losing one of our strongest advocates for uncompromisingly good education. But in another way, Chattanooga - and now all of Tennessee - will continue to benefit from Dr. Jared Bigham's dedication to searching for equity in education and innovative ways of teaching, no matter what the classroom's location or demographics.
Bigham is leaving his role as executive director of Chattanooga 2.0 to join the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry as senior adviser for workforce and rural initiatives.
He'll be missed here in Chattanooga, but we expect he will be able to broaden the state's understanding of the educational challenges we face in 2019.
Chattanooga 2.0 is the city's innovative collaboration of local businesses, nonprofits and industry leaders to tackle the region's biggest education challenges. Founded in 2016 by four partners - the Benwood Foundation, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, Hamilton County Schools and the Public Education Foundation - Chattanooga 2.0 dared to shock the city and county into an understanding of just how much we were failing our children: Among 44,000 students in Hamilton County, almost 60 percent of students entering kindergarten here were deemed not ready to learn, 60 percent of third-graders could not read at grade level and at least 60 percent of our high school graduates are not jobs-ready.
The bottom line had repercussions far beyond school doors.
Chattanooga 2.0. showed that 80 percent of the jobs arriving in the county paying more than $35,000 a year require some sort of post-secondary certificate or degree, and just 38 percent of residents obtained that level of education. The report pushed the community to action.
In two years, Chattanooga 2.0 was instrumental in starting Camp K, a four-week summer program to teach youngsters to count, to say their ABCs and to follow instructions - the core steps to learning readiness. Chattanooga 2.0 also has had a hand in working to develop better teachers for all grades, as well as one the school district's biggest initiatives - 20 Future Ready Institutes, industry-themed learning academics embedded in our traditional high schools.
Bigham said he is proud of the work 2.0 has done in the past two years, but he's also looking forward - as are we - to his work with the state Chamber.
"This is a good inflection point for the 2.0 work as it evolves to reflect the needs of the community," said Bigham, a long-time resident and former educator in Polk County. "And this exciting opportunity became available, and rural community work is a big part of where my heart is."
Bigham's appointment is one of the next steps to bolster rural workforce development initiatives, a priority of new Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
We think it's a good match. Godspeed.