September 12, 1996
Contact: Mark Pfeiffer
502-564-2611

Frankfort, KY- September 12, 1996--Speaking at a capitol news conference, Governor Paul Patton, Education Commissioner Wilmer Cody, and a host of partners in the state's education, cultural and business communities released The Kentucky Challenge: Arts, Culture, and Technology Initiative, a five-year plan created in a collaborative effort to accelerate and expand elementary school reform, helping teachers and communities ensure that all children succeed in school.

The Kentucky Challenge is the first initiative that will benefit from the Annenberg Foundation's five year $10 million challenge grant awarded earlier this year to a national partnership of the Galef Institute and several other arts education organizations seeking to advance school reform.

With a pledge of $1.1 million from the Arts, Culture, and Technology (ACT) Annenberg Challenge Initiative, the top-level political, education and private sector leaders today accepted the challenge to accelerate the course of successful educational practices statewide.

Also present at the announcement were J. Dan Lacy, Vice President of Ashland Inc.; Roy Peterson, Education, Arts, and Humanities Cabinet Secretary to the Governor; Virginia Fox, Executive Director and CEO of Kentucky Educational Television (KET); Linda Adelman, President of the Galef Institute; Linda Hargan, Executive Director of the Galef Institute-Kentucky Collaborative for the Elementary Learning; and representatives of the Governing Board of the Initiative.

The lead organization for The Kentucky Challenge is the Galef Institute-Kentucky Collaborative for Elementary Learning, which includes the Kentucky Department of Education, the Kentucky Arts Council, KET, the Kentucky Congress of Parents and Teachers, Kentucky Association of School Administrators, Kentucky Education Association, Kentucky Association of School Councils, the Prichard Committee, Lexington Herald-Leader, Forward in the Fifth, and 14 other public and private organizations which support elementary reform. The Collaborative has been working with more than 3000 teachers in 310 Kentucky elementary schools. Over the next four years, the goal of the Kentucky Challenge is to make it possible for all elementary schools to participate in Different Ways of Knowing, the school reform initiative of the Los Angeles-based Galef Institute. Twenty five percent of the grant will be used to sustain the improvements over time by developing leadership programs and creating links to local arts and cultural organizations and colleges of education which prepare new elementary teachers. The University of Louisville, Murray State University and Eastern Kentucky University are already involved. It will also reward new collaborations with schools by arts, cultural, higher education, and community groups that invest in education reform throughout the commonwealth.

Governor Patton said, "This gift to Kentucky is a vote of confidence in our efforts to improve our children's education. We are accepting the challenge to put forth a vision--a call to action--that continues to raise our standards and involves all of us in helping children meet higher standards. The Kentucky Challenge will demonstrate that high levels of student achievement are not just for the few, but for all our children."

Walter Annenberg, editor, publisher, and former US Ambassador to Great Britain, designed the Annenberg Challenge to energize and support promising efforts at school reform across the country. President Bill Clinton announced the extraordinary $500 million gift for this purpose at a White House Ceremony in December 1993. Grants already have been made to major metropolitan areas and a nationwide rural school initiative. Mr. Annenberg said, "The Kentucky Challenge is exactly how I imagined the Annenberg Foundation funds would be put to work-as a catalyst for communities to increase their involvement in education, to be responsive to the needs of their children, and to expand their support for the continuous improvement of their own teachers. This initiative offers teachers a wide range of professional growth opportunities and the tools they need to reach all children, to stimulate children's intellectual curiosity and creativity."