FLORENCE — About one in every three working-age adults in Northern Kentucky reads poorly, if at all.

        Just more than half of the state's high school graduates go directly to college, compared with a national average of 65 percent.

        One-fourth of Kentuckians ages 25 and older have completed high school, and only 20 percent have earned a bachelor's degree.

        State education, business and government leaders want to improve those numbers, urging Kentuckians to “Go Higher.” Kentucky officials announced the $2.5 million media campaign during a 10-city teleconference Friday to challenge people to get more education — whether that means completing a GED, getting a bachelor's degree or going to graduate school.

        “Kentuckians can go farther than they think they can go,” said Lee Todd, president of the University of Kentucky. “Kentuckians can compete, particularly educated Kentuckians.”
       

Attitudinal change

        The state has made efforts to improve the quality of Kentucky's postsecondary education, as well as make it more affordable and accessible to everyone.

        But the goal of this campaign is to change attitudes.

        “The one thing state government can't do by passing a law is to get people to take advantage of the education opportunities that are available,” Gov. Paul Patton said. “When parents don't understand the value of education, children don't understand the value of education.”

        Since 1998, enrollment at Kentucky colleges and universities — public and private, graduate and undergraduate — has increased from 185,000 to a record high of 200,000.

        Kentucky has set a goal of enrolling 80,000 more undergraduates by 2015. The state also wants to boost numbers at adult education programs from about 50,000 last year to 500,000 by 2020.

        The next step in Mr. Patton's “Education Pays” initiative, the campaign will target adults, ages 18-49, with poor reading skills, as well as middle and high school students at risk of dropping out or not going to college.

        The focus will be in 10 communities around the state — including Northern Kentucky's Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties — that have been selected as test areas to determine which tactics work best to encourage people to improve their educations.

        These communities will receive more intensive marketing, program support and grant money to assess the areas' education needs. The other model sites are Lexington, Louisville, Ashland, Elizabethtown, Madisonville, Somerset, Paducah, Hazard and Bowling Green.

        The state is also pushing these communities to follow Northern Kentucky's lead and develop education councils that bring together school districts, colleges, adult education centers, businesses and others to develop strategies to improve the education of their residents.
       

N.Ky. a leader

        Northern Kentucky took this step eight years ago.

        The Northern Kentucky Council of Partners in Education was started in 1993 as a collaborative effort among Northern Kentucky University, Thomas More College and the Northern Kentucky Superintendents Association.

        “Our goal is to make sure each level knows what the other level is doing,” said Ray Hebert, dean emeritus at Thomas More and one of the founding co-chairmen of the Council of Partners.

        The group has worked to improve communication and coordination between high schools and colleges. The group also put together information for high school teachers, students, counselors and parents about what they need to know about college and higher education opportunities.

        The council also designed the Kentucky Early Mathematics Testing Program — the first of its kind in the country. The program, now accessible over the Internet by every teacher in the state, is aimed at encouraging high school students to take four years of math to reduce the number of remedial math classes taken in college.

        The Council of Post-Secondary Education has offered $100,000 — $10,000 each for up to 10 communities — to help local communities start these councils. However, Northern Kentucky and Morehead have been the only two to participate.

        “The Council of Partners was the first on the scene, and certainly has been a leader,” said Jim Applegate, vice president for Academic Affairs for CPE.
       

Construction to computers

        Northern Kentucky leaders are hoping to replicate success stories such as that of John Sturgeon.

        Mr. Sturgeon dropped out of high school in Cincinnati when he was 17 and took a job in construction.

        “I couldn't wait to get out into the working world. There wasn't as much emphasis on education back then,” he said. “One of my counselors told me I should quit high school, and I did.”

        Twenty years later, a single father of two living in Newport, Mr. Sturgeon decided to go back to school. He got his GED in June, and is now a sophomore at Northern Kentucky University pursuing a bachelor's degree in computer science. After that, he's considering law school.

        “People need to hear from more people like me,” he said. “I was afraid to go to college. I was afraid I couldn't do it. I was afraid it was too late in life. But don't listen to the lies in your head. If I can do it, so can they.”

        Television and radio commercials for the “Go Higher” campaign will start next week. The money comes from a 2000 appropriation from the General Assembly.

        The first $500,000 was already spent on a program to urge GED students to complete their test batteries before the end of the year, when the test will change and previous work will no longer apply.

        With that push, the number of GED test takers was up 70 percent from June 2000 to June 2001, and six new testing centers were opened around the state.

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