KET has received a $123,256 Ready to Learn (RTL) grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS to expand school readiness projects and to create training for child care providers that will help strengthen early learning experiences for preschool children.

KET has also been awarded $200,000 in funding through CPB’s “American Graduate: Let’s Make It Happen” project, which aims to keep students in school, bring dropouts back in to earn their GED® certificate and re-engage the community in making education work.

Taken together, the dual grants reinforce KET’s ‘cradle to college and career-readiness’ initiatives that underscore the importance of lifelong and career-focused learning opportunities for every Kentuckian.

“These grants support KET’s educational initiatives serving the youngest to the oldest learners with complementary goals that impact education at every level. Whether it’s parents, grandparents and early childhood care providers helping children develop early math and literacy skills or individuals and communities collaborating to engage and encourage adults who want to complete their high school equivalency, it all underscores the value of access to quality educational resources in helping us achieve abundant lives, communities and economies,” said Shae Hopkins, KET executive director and CEO. “Getting our children, families and caregivers engaged early in learning is just as critical as finding ways to engage high school students and drop-outs.”

There is an urgent need to prepare Kentucky’s children with skills necessary for success in today’s global economy, which begins with preparing them for kindergarten. However, according to pilot data released by the Kentucky Department of Education, only 28 percent of incoming kindergarten students in Kentucky were ready to succeed without additional support.

With the new Ready to Learn grant, KET will partner with Jefferson County Public Schools and several Louisville community organizations to provide teacher training, family engagement and student activities that demonstrate the powerful and effective role technology can play when used to provide quality content that helps preschoolers become kindergarten-ready. Through this grant, KET expects to reach more than 1,000 children and 100 teachers in many of Jefferson County’s lowest-income, at-risk communities. A companion statewide on-air and online public awareness campaign will equip parents and caregivers with easy, at-home activities and media to help prepare children for school.

Through the American Graduate grant, KET will expand its work to keep students engaged in school, prepare adults to complete their GED® test, and help adults become workforce and career-ready. Specifically, the grant will allow KET to focus efforts on communities of high need in Jefferson County. Working alongside strategic partners within the Louisville area and through on-air and online messaging efforts, KET will create an overarching public awareness campaign to stress the importance of ‘dropping back in’ to adult education and GED® certificate attainment.

“Education is a lifelong pursuit that begins with early childhood learning and succeeds with adults prepared to build careers,” said Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3). “KET is an essential partner in educating Kentuckians, and its innovative approaches to learning have helped establish it as a national leader.”

During this Congress, Rep. Yarmuth introduced the Ready to Compete Act, which would leverage public television’s educational resources and broad access to reach more learners of all ages.

Currently, the national high school graduation rate is roughly 80%, and Kentucky’s graduation rate is just below that, at approximately 76%. The Kentucky Department of Education has set a goal of achieving a 90% statewide graduation rate by 2015.

[source: http://education.ky.gov/commofed/cdu/pages/ccr.aspx; and http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014391.pdf]

 

KET is Kentucky’s largest classroom, serving more than one million people each week via television, online and mobile. Learn more about Kentucky’s preeminent public media organization on Twitter @KET and facebook.com/KET and at KET.org.

 

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KET is Kentucky’s largest classroom, serving more than one million people each week via television, online and mobile. Learn more about Kentucky’s preeminent public media organization on Twitter @KET and facebook.com/KET and at KET.org.

Contact:

Todd Piccirilli
Senior Director, Marketing and Communications
859-258-7242
tpiccirilli@ket.org