Beloved Sesame Street icon, Tennessee Commissioner of Education, Lieutenant Governor, Nashville Mayor and Farmer Jason at War Memorial Auditorium

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – January 27, 2009 – SESAME STREET’S Elmo will join Tennessee public television stations NPT and WLJT, local leaders Dr. Tim Webb, Tennessee Commissioner of Education; Ron Ramsey, Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee; Nashville Mayor Karl Dean; and representatives from the four additional Tennessee public television stations, for the launch of PBS KIDS Raising Readers, an initiative that uses the power of educational media to help meet the urgent literacy needs of kids ages 2-8, especially those from low income families. 

The invitation-only event -- held for state legislators, education and community leaders and members of the media -- on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville, will be hosted by Beth Curley, President and CEO of Nashville Public Television (NPT), and Dave Hinman, General Manager and CEO of WLJT (Public Television for West Tennessee) in Martin. Pre-Kindergarten students from Paragon Mills Elementary School in Nashville will attend and participate in literacy activities.  Children’s entertainer Farmer Jason, a.k.a. Jason Ringenberg of the seminal alt-country band Jason and the Scorchers, will also perform.

Members of the media planning to attend the event should RSVP to Joe Pagetta, Media Relations Manager, NPT, at (615) 259-9325 ext. 211 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

NPT and WLJT are two of 20 stations in the nation selected to participate in this exciting literacy initiative.  This national project is funded as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Ready To Learn grant and is managed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), PBS and The Ready to Learn Partnership, through a cooperative agreement.

“We have always been dedicated to the children and literacy needs of this community,” said Curley. “With the support of the CPB and PBS, we can extend our reach and go deeper into our neighborhoods, to better address the needs of our viewing area with new and exciting digital literacy tools.”

A key component of the initiative is the research-based content and materials, which are based on existing popular PBS KIDS Raising Readers series, BETWEEN THE LIONS and SESAME STREET as well as exciting newer shows, including:

•    THE ELECTRIC COMPANY  -- the reincarnation of a 70’s television classic brings a cool cast of characters, amazing literacy super powers, side-splitting cartoons and songs;
•    MARTHA SPEAKS -- based on the popular children’s book series, the show follows the adventures of Martha, a loveable dog who learns to speak after eating a bowl of alphabet soup;
•    SUPER WHY --  features a team of superhero characters with literacy-based powers who jump into books to look for answers to everyday problems;  and
•    WORDWORLD -- the computer-animated series where characters and objects, called “Wordfriends,™” spring to life from the letters that spell their names.

“PBS KIDS Raising Readers encompasses not only great TV and community outreach, but content that's available 24/7 on PBS KIDS Island,” said Robert Lippincott, senior vice president of PBS education.

PBS KIDS Island (www.readytolearnreading.org ) is the centerpiece of the PBS KIDS Raising Readers website. This free literacy website provides children with the tools to build an online island by playing reading games with PBS KIDS characters. Providing a familiar and comfortable environment for emerging readers, the research-based site guides children through core reading skills and offers a progress tracker that allows parent and teachers to chart their child’s progress.
“Literacy and education are essential if our children are to succeed in today’s world,” said Hinman, who also serves as Chair of the Tennessee Public Television Council.  “Raising Readers provides Tennessee with additional, modern teaching tools that excite and motivate the kids to learn. Tennessee’s public television stations are proud to be educational partners with teachers, parents and care-givers.”

Research is at the core of the programming and all aspects of PBS KIDS Raising Readers.  Sixty commissioned studies are providing new insights into how children learn from media, the best ways to build reading skills with content, activities and community engagement, and the effectiveness of the content specifically created for PBS KIDS Raising Readers. All of the content is being developed using a literacy framework designed to teach young children, especially those from low-income families, the fundamentals of reading.  The framework is based on the recommendations of the National Reading Panel of 2000, which outlines building blocks for teaching young children how to read. These include phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.

About Nashville Public Television
Nashville Public Television is available free and over the air to nearly 2.2 million people throughout the Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky viewing area, and is watched by more than 600,000 households every week. NPT provides, through the power of traditional television and interactive telecommunications, high quality educational, cultural and civic experiences that address issues and concerns of the people of the Nashville region, and which thereby help improve the lives of those we serve.

About WLJT
WLJT is committed to helping close the knowledge gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children. Serving 16 counties in West Tennessee (outside of Memphis), WLJT provides educational television programs, community outreach events, and training for parents, childcare providers and teachers in this quest to help our children get “ready to learn.”

About CPB
CPB, a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1000 locally owned and operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television, and related on-line services.

About PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO!
PBS KIDS, for preschoolers, and PBS KIDS GO!, for early elementary school kids, offer all children – from every walk of life – the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television, online and outreach programs. With positive character role models and content designed to nurture a child’s total well-being, PBS’s online and community resources - including PBS KIDS online (pbskids.org), PBS KIDS GO! online (pbskidsgo.org ), PBS Parents (pbsparents.org), PBS Teachers (pbsteachers.org), PBS KIDS Raising Readers and literacy events across the country - leverage the full spectrum of media, technology and community to build knowledge, critical thinking, imagination and curiosity. Empowering children for success in school and in life, only PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! have earned the unanimous endorsement of parents, children, industry leaders and teachers. PBS is a nonprofit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation’s 356 public television stations, serving more than 115 million people on-air and online each month. 

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The contents of this release were developed under a grant, #PRU295B050003, from the Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Contact:
Joe Pagetta/NPT
(615) 259-9325 Ext. 211/ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Katrina Cobb/WLJT
(731) 881-7561 / This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it