Public schools in our region boast good student-to-teacher ratios and high test scores. City-Data.com, a website that collects and analyzes data on U.S. cities, reported that Kingsport’s Dobyns-Bennett High School is ranked No. 1 in the state based on test scores.
Other area high schools ranked high as well – Washington County’s Daniel Boone ranked No. 4; Johnson City’s Science Hill was No. 6; Sullivan South, located in Kingsport, ranked No. 7; Hawkins County’s Cherokee High was No. 9; and Elizabethton and Greenville tied for No. 10.
Sullivan Central, in Blountville, ranked No. 13; Sullivan North, in Kingsport, ranked No. 20; and Sullivan East, in Bluff City, ranked No. 22.
Because test scores are high and student-to-teacher ratios are good, many parents choose to send their children to public schools. Parents who prefer private schools have several to choose from as well.
Our region is centrally located to a large number of colleges and universities – both locally and within a short drive. Colleges in the region provide opportunities for traditional college students as well as non-traditional students who want to take classes for personal development.
“We have always done public school with all four of our children and we have gone through the elementary system. We are now into the middle school system and about to start the high school system. They’re fantastic. Unbelievable teachers. Our public school test scores have been some of the highest in the state. We have PhD teachers at our elementary school. It’s just amazing. We’ve been nothing but thrilled with the system.”
Dusty Woodard
“Schools are great. Really, overall we have a great choice of public schools – which are in my experience far better than public schools in other areas – and a good choice of private schools as well.”
Dr. Bill Messerschmidt
“We have King College, Virginia Intermont, Emory and Henry, ETSU all within a 30-minute drive. So if you want to take classes or you just want to be exposed to having the opportunity to maybe catch a lecture from time to time, we’ve got great institutions of higher education all very close by.”
Janet Jayne
“We’re surrounded by colleges. There’s several in Bristol and I’ve done some adjunct teaching, so that was really fun for me. But I think having colleges in the area keeps the teaching level high at the lowest level so there are people available to do the private schools and the public schools.”
Susan Lapis