By Andy Furman
NKyTribune reporter
For forty-plus minutes there was dead-silence in the hall that housed the weekly Covington Rotary luncheon Tuesday at the Radisson Hotel.
Cheye Calvo had the audience mesmerized. That is because he was speaking about children and their education in Northern Kentucky.
Calvo, who moved to the region last July, is the President and CEO of EducateNKY – a non-profit to improve outcomes for all children and their families through the exploration and adoption of innovative approaches to prenatal-grade 12 education in the Northern Kentucky region. He replaced the retiring Tim Hanner.
“There is nothing more valuable than developing the brain in children,” he told the Northern Kentucky Tribune. “Kids need to hear words. Their brains are little sponges.”
The EducateNKY Board was launched in March, 2023, and is focused on the 13 school districts, 36 schools, and 60,000 public school kids in the region.
“I lived in the Bay Area of California before moving here,” Calvo said, “and did a Landscape Assessment throughout the Fall, Winter of 2023-24 in Northern Kentucky before my move.”
The analysis included a “deep dive” of existing data, interviews with 200-plus stakeholders and development of key trends and findings.
One of the findings – Northern Kentucky kids are not being prepared for the future. Following kindergarten, kids in Northern Kentucky see a steady decline in proficiency all the way through high school, according to the report.
These numbers are even more drastic when one looks at individual subjects such as science and math.
“While our graduation rates are high – more than 95 percent across the region –digging into the numbers shows that young people are graduating with underperforming skill sets,” he told the assembled group.
“For most kids in Northern Kentucky,” Calvo shocked the group, “Kindergarten is their high-point.”
According to a 2023 report, kindergarten readiness was a weak 36.4 percent average for River City students – Bellevue, Covington, Dayton, Ludlow, Newport, and Southgate. The state average – 46.2 percent for proficiency and readiness.
The problem, per Calvo – Northern Kentucky believes all kids deserve a fair shot at learning; our kids are the future and Northern Kentucky is a thriving region.
But the Northern Kentucky realities are only half of Northern Kentucky kids are kindergarten-ready. Northern Kentucky kids are not prepared for the future and declines and disparities – both economic and social – in academic outcomes threaten our community’s prosperity.
“These realities do not reflect our beliefs,” he said.
In short, EducateNKY was founded to be:
• An Incubator: Bring new research-based ideas to life by providing start-up funding,
• Accelerator: Equip schools and nonprofit organizations to expand their capacity and impact and scale proven models, and
• Activator: Catalyze people, funding, and energy on common goals, removing barriers to success and incentivizing collective impact.
“We’re starting the education system from scratch,” Calvo said.
But how?
“We are transforming education through collective action, investing in schools as the heart of our communities, ultimately creating a coordinated system that nurtures children at every stage of their journey to unlock their potential and build a brighter future,” he said.
That strategic plan — Ignite Possible — rests on starting strong, building skills, and owning the future.
The foundation, according to Calvo, that prepares young children to start school strong, equips parents and families to leverage their power, and rallies the community to achieve educational excellence.
Skills will be developed through robust partnerships with families, rigorous and coordinated systems of learning, and enriching out-of-school time programs that supercharge academic growth.
And finally, owning the future by having students take ownership of their learning journey and discover a path that leads to a fulfilling and successful future.
“We’re working on starting strong now,” Calvo said. “To create a full-time position to partner with families, communities, and schools to drive kindergarten readiness in the River Cities.”
There are 37 cities in the Northern Kentucky three-county region.
“If we want to make our schools better, we all need to be in – business as well as nonprofits,” Calvo said. “Our schools are a reflection of the communities they serve.
“We undervalue people who work with children,” he said.