Common Good for the Common Wealth: Igniting Possible: Building a Better Future for Northern Kentucky’s Kids

What happens when improving education becomes the responsibility of an entire community, not just its schools? 

From early learning and family engagement to school innovation, data, community partnerships, and career pathways, Cheye shares why the future of education requires all of us to lean in. He also discusses the opportunities emerging in Northern Kentucky’s River Cities and why strengthening outcomes for kids isn’t only an education issue; it’s essential to the long-term vibrancy of the entire region.

At the heart of the conversation is a simple idea: when children thrive, communities thrive. In this episode of Common Good for the Commonwealth, Nancy Grayson sits down with Cheye Calvo, President & CEO of EducateNKY, to explore what it takes to improve outcomes for children and families across Northern Kentucky.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:08

This is Common Good for the Commonwealth, where we speak with Northern Kentucky's uncommon advocates who work every day to make our region more vibrant. I'm Nancy Grayson, President and CEO of Horizon Community Foundation of Northern Kentucky, and your host today. Thank you for joining us, and we're honored to have Shai Calvo, CEO of Educate in KY, with us here today. Thank you so much for being here, Shai.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Hi, Nancy. It's always lovely to spend time with you.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

We're actually on the same floor in the one in KY Center. So this probably could have been done in one of our offices, but we are in the lovely Spark House uh podcast studio. So thank you for spending some of your time here with us to talk about education. Um and first I want to chat with you. You're not from Northern Kentucky.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

I'm you is two years still brand new?

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Yes. Well, eventually we'll get you to claim it as your ongoing home. But you've been all over the US, quite frankly. What is it that drew you to Northern Kentucky? And also conversely, what's unique about Kentucky in Northern Kentucky and your your particular opinion?

SPEAKER_01 1:16

What drew me here is the people. You know, the the leadership, the sense of place, the friendliness. You know, it's it's I've lived on, you know, I moved here directly from California, but I grew up in the DC area and I've lived a lot of different places. But, you know, I don't know that's unique, but it is special, which is just the the the friendliness, the the and uh a collective sense that we can do things. It's it's the sense of not just the past where you know the sense of place is strong, but the future and where this region is going. And and that that sense of, you know, things are good, but we can do better is what really drew me here.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

One of the things when we first met, uh you were working as a consultant with Educate NKY, and we were talking about education in the region and kind of the personality of the community. And I think because we cheated on Kentucky, our family did and lived in Boston for a period of years, the coast really kind of don't think much about the mid part of the country, or if they do, it's it's with, you know, very specific intention. And I think when I lived in other parts of the state, they often had preconceived notions about us being part of Cincinnati. Cincinnati sees us as not really part. We're across the river in northern Kentucky. So we kind of have to do things on our own. Um, I think that is reflected in the diverse communities that we have, which also mean the many public school districts that we have in northern Kentucky, which for our viewers is actually unique for the state itself because there aren't frequently 13 public school districts in a three-county footprint. Um, so so it requires collaboration, it requires community effort. Um, and we kind of have to stand up for ourselves. And I do think that makes us unique too. Talk to us with Educating KY. It's really more than just schools helping to provide strong outcomes for youth. Um, I think because of the different public school districts, uh, mobility of families and youth, it requires us all to work together. Um, that's really your mission is to engage the community to help us to think bigger. Um, how do you do that? How do you involve folks who maybe it's not their day-to-day job to think about education?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Public education is about the community first. It's easy to think about it and put it the burden on superintendents and teachers and principals, and they're critically important. But what makes public education special is it is the service that we all touch. Like, I mean, the very few people don't have a view of education because they went through it. But education starts from the moment a baby is born and hopefully doesn't end you know uh throughout your life, lifelong learning. Yes. But those early years are formative. And and so and and public education in America and certainly in northern Kentucky is largely a reflection of the community served. And what you find is that the success of public education it correlates very closely to who is being served. And if you're in a um, you know, a privileged community that that serves you well, but there are so many great communities in northern Kentucky that, you know, the the kids in the school system are too often coming in. Kindergarten readiness is in the urban core, is you know, in the low 30s. And so when you have two-thirds of your kids coming in behind, it's really hard to catch them up. And the only way we change that trajectory is we we we activate the community to to take ownership. And I say take ownership is tell people what to do, but to play a role, to volunteer, to contribute, to be part of the solution. And so educate NKY is about elevating outcomes for kids and families. That's what we care about. How to do it, that's a me that's a meaningful discussion, and there's no right or wrong, but the answer we find is going to be better the more people who play a role. If we put that burden solely on our schools, we're not gonna be successful, and that's not fair. But I think schools are probably the place where we have the greatest opportunity to to provide opportunity for for every student who who's in our in every child who's in our in our region.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

And I think often now, especially because we have so many of those districts, and you look at a local community, they've become community hubs of source, of sorts. And I think that um the federal funding is intended to encourage that. You have the this concept of um engaging families and making sure that they're engaged in education so the locus of that activity does become the school. When you are gathering different, I think of different constituent groups to become part of that work, it's nonprofits, it's community leaders, it's business, it's higher ed, um, certainly educators, administrators. Um, what what's a challenge in doing that? Uh, because they all have very different cultures. In my prior work um at the Northern Kentucky Education Council, we recognize that. You recognize that, that there's different language, different cultures that that are having to be bridged. So, what is the challenge that maybe comes with working with those diverse groups? And what's really the biggest opportunity?

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Well, I mean, you had mentioned that Northern Kentucky has the greatest concentration of school districts in the Commonwealth. That's true. There are six in Campbell County, five in Kenton County, and then two in Boone, but uh Kenton and Campbell are one in two as far as school districts. And I think there's, you know, small is a superpower. Like I in a former life uh in Maryland, I was a mayor uh of a small town. You too are a recovering politician.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

For 11 years of my life, I did like talk about my youthful indiscretions. Uh, and I see the value of having small cities, small school districts. The challenge of that is scale. And so, where it's amazing when a superintendent can know the name of every single student in their school district, that's a real value. And I think the level of personalization and attention you get is great. But being a small school district, you may not have the capacity to form the partnerships. And it's it's it's really important to understand school districts um, you know, obviously publicly supported, but there's a lot of partners who make schools better, whether it's providing an after-school program or mentoring or um other um benefits like adopt a class or you know, trades in KY, or there's so many organizations, partnership change, big brothers, big sisters, that add value to schools. It's hard to partner with 13 different school districts. And so a lot of what we're trying to do is how do we create systems so it's not just one person, maybe a teacher or a staff person who's responsible of that partnership, but you actually have continuity because people change. And so, how do we make it easier for those people on the outside, whether they're organizations or businesses or just individuals who want to volunteer to play a meaningful role? So structures matter. Um, but it's also like you got to start earlier. Because so often, like there are great organizations in Northern Kentucky, like the Life Learning Center, that do amazing work, but they're off that's a organization taking people who are often coming out of incarceration. That's that's the hard way to do it. Everything we do, we want to go up upriver. We want to go upstream and start earlier. So, like the launch of you know, Read Ready Covington was in place in 2018, but we've now, over the last year, seen an expansion of that where we're about gauging children age zero to five, but that really means engaging parents, yes, families in that process to help them understand their own power, to activate their potential, to, you know, it's a lot more, you know, from an impact standpoint, building the brain of a one-year-old is easier than a 16-year-old.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Um, and so the more we can do earlier, the better. And these are these aren't, you know, these these are collaborative, collective impact. No one entity or one person or one organization can do this alone. And so what we're really is a catalyst organization helping to see the opportunity and potential and make more possible.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

When we talk about that collaboration, I think, of innovation too, and um, there has been some support from the state now to explore uh districts of innovation and schools of innovation. I know we're working on that in Covington. Can you share more with our listeners about the School of Innovation concept and what works being done locally?

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Well, we believe very strongly that you don't need to have the original idea. And and so much in innovation is trying things that have, you know, been done elsewhere and bringing them here. And and so there, and there's a lot exciting things happening across the country in education that aren't happening in northern Kentucky. And so we want to see more collaboration and innovation. That's just something that was in our founding. Like that's not to say we decide what those things are, but rather we're really trying to work with educators to encourage more of that. Last year, um, in 2025, the General Assembly passed a schools of innovation um law that was brand new. It was actually taken from South Carolina, which Senator West sort of got the idea and put it in place. And uh it didn't get a lot of attention. Um, but we were very excited to partner with uh Holmes Middle School in Covington. Uh, the principal there, Lee Turner, lucked the idea. He had a team together and they came up with some innovative ideas. This Covington Board of Education uh sent the first application to the state board of education for a School of Innovation designation that involved getting waivers from laws and regulations that impede their flexibility. Uh, and it was a very thoughtful, um, a very thoughtful application. However, the General Assembly was overjoyed by it, and and Senator West actually moved some additional enhancements to the law to sort of increase the flexibility, but also created a school innovation fund um uh pilot where money was set aside in the biennial $7.5 million was set aside for public-private partnerships for schools and school boards who want to take this opportunity. And because of the work that Covington did last year, Covington was singled out for a $2.5 million state appropriation that would be matched dollar for dollar with private resources. So it so happens this happens at the same time that a new superintendent's coming into Covington. And so uh uh Courtney um uh Lucas is the new superintendent. She started just three weeks ago. And so this gives the opportunity for Covington to have a $5 million school innovation fund that can really, you know, supercharge a real overhaul of this small but manageable size urban district where Covington has really been tapped to lead the Commonwealth in school innovation. So what's going to come of this is still to be in many ways you know written and it's very much actively happening now. But it's really exciting, it's an exciting time to be in Covington in general. But the the this new leadership, these you know, state resources, public-private partnerships, uh, it's it's really exciting to be in this world where new and exciting things are going to happen.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

And I think that that gives also hope for families who are moving into the river cities. And I know there's always been a lot of conversation about pride in place, uh, pride in your local district. I'm I'm the product of public schools. Um but I think you look at outcomes and how you want to improve and you want schools to be schools of excellence. And when people move to communities, you want to make sure that those schools have that level of kind of support for their kids. So in my mind, hearing this innovation provides um some hope and opportunity for folks who do want to live and raise their kids in the urban core, knowing that their local school could have some of these innovative aspects that otherwise wouldn't have happened. What are some of those? Talk, talk. Maybe this isn't exactly going to happen initially, but what are some things down the road that you think could be explored?

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Well, I think there's, I mean, there's a lot of innovative ideas. And I think the best ideas often come from educators or from families just kind of talking through like what are what do they want differently? And so I think just having a space where where educators are challenged and and um given the space to try different things, sometimes they're not complicated. Things like, you know, um kindergarten home visits, where you on the front end of kindergarten, families are having more time to meet with teachers, to sort of and build relationships. How do you get more family partnership into schools? How do you early literacy? I think about you know the Mississippi Miracle, they talked about this focus on using the science of reading to elevate early literacy. It's it's it's not, it's actually, you know, kind of return to phonics. It's like back to basics, but it's something that we got away from. And I think our literacy scores have suffered because of that. How do you reorganize school days? How do you um more like how do we build a talent force? Like, I mean, I think teaching is one of those things that uh we we need to elevate the profession. We need to make sure that our best teachers are in our schools with the greatest needs. How do you build compensation structures that that reward the best teachers to encourage them to be where they are? How do we use, how do we build data systems? How do we build um structures so that data, which we have so much of it, how is data in the hands of teachers so that when they're pulling a small group for additional support, they can very easily figure out who are the six kids that have to sit at that little table for small group discussions on this key skill. These things are, again, they're they're not they're not rocket science, but they matter. And when you're trying to close gaps, and then how do you develop more advanced student pathways? How do you engage kids with how so that they have more exposure, but also more agency in what they want to do and give them a course schedule that they can actually know how, like what class do they need to take in ninth grade and tenth grade and twelfth grade to have a work-based learning opportunity that's going to set them up for the career? There's so many things that can be done better and differently. And hopefully this opportunity is sort of like unlocking those. I will be the first to tell you that I don't have all the answers, but I think within all of our schools, there's so many ideas and I, you know, that that if given the space could actually, you know, generate new innovation. Yes. And usually every everything is a journey, it's a dynamic process. And I really think we have to tap into the the talent and ideas of our educators to do differently. And parents, how do you get the parents in as real partners in that process? Because, you know, kids spend more time with their parents than they do with their teacher.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

And how do you measure that engagement? I mean, you you and I talk about data quite frequently. And for those listeners who maybe aren't data nerds as much as you and I are shy, it is important to measure success and to tweak, maybe even in real time. I think of our wonderful partners, partners for change, and the work they were leading in in Covington, which is being expanded into other River Cities districts right now, thinking through those, it's not even an intervention, but really um modeling and tailoring education specifically for that individual student, which looks different from kid to kid. And I think as a parent, that feels really overwhelming because you you aren't the person maybe who's delivering that curriculum, but showing that progress and teaching families how to better understand how they are involved in that progress. The the data piece is really critical and being able to simplify it for either public consumption or family consumption so that they can understand this is actually moving the needle for my kid by doing some very simple things.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

You know, I do love data, and I think data is related to accountability, but I think sometimes data is misused. It's used as a hammer, not as a flashlight. And I think we need to use data as a flashlight to tell us what we need to know.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

That's a great phrase, by the way. I stole it.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

It is not mine, it is not original. Uh I what I will say though is I think we talk about school wrong. Like people often ask me, like, what's a good school? Yeah. And and I would not answer that as a school that is like has super high proficiency levels. That you want a super high, you know, absolute proficiency. But what I want to know is how much learning is a school developing for a year of seat time. So what you would say, like, well, if a kid comes in on grade level and they grow one year of learning for one year of time, that's success. Because they're on grade level already. But we already talked about in the river cities, you know, barely a third are walking in the door kindergarten ready. So in order to make up, we have to do better than that. And so, how are we measuring growth? It wasn't until actually last year that um the interim assessment. So all schools use what's called an interim assessment. Don't worry, I'm not gonna geek out too far on this. But it's a way they measure, like at the start of the school year and at the end of the school year, how much does a student grow on grade level based on nationally norm data? And we we think that's an area like if schools could align more, is the problem, you know, Covington and Newport and Ludlow all use different interim assessments. Sure. And so, and that's a problematic because we get transient. So when a kid moves mid-year, I mean, I was a low-income kid and went to 14 schools before graduating high school. I went to four schools in second grade. Wow. And that's hard on teachers when a new kid pops up. And so, how do we do a better job aligning on the systems that we use and sharing information? So when a kid moves, I didn't do anything wrong in second grade when I moved from one school to another, but my teachers had to like meet me where I was. Right. And they didn't, you know, and so how can we make sure that when the information flows, the the teachers are getting information that makes sense to them, they can use and setting them up for success. There's a lot we can do to make the the system meet the reality we have, not some ideal that may or may not have ever existed 30 years ago. So I do think there are ways that we can adjust our build systems that serve students and families and teachers better and that are going to ultimately lead to better outcomes. Data systems are a key part of that because if you're using data as a punitive way, that's not success. But if we have all this data and we're putting it in the hands of teachers and they can use it to better educate kids, that's what success looks like.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

We love storytelling here on Common Good for the Commonwealth. And you you talk and you actually mentioned earlier during this conversation about the phrase ignite possible, which is a key part of language and your brand and really the mission of educating KY. Do you have a story you could share that that provides, and maybe it's not a current story, it could be something that you've experienced in the past that's um an example of what igniting possible could look like.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

When I think about igniting possible, I've got a personal level, where I've seen it where it's been most powerful, is with parents. So let me tell you, my my parents have a year of high school between them. That was my mother, and she got pregnant and married that year. And she was never involved in my education. She just wasn't. She loved me, but she school was not a good place for her. She was not a place where she did well and she didn't feel comfortable. And so when I think being involved in education for a few decades now, I where I get most excited, it was a mother. And it may be a mother who um doesn't have an education herself. It may be, you know, she may not even, you know, have English as a first language, but when you engage her and help equip her with an understanding of like she can lean into her child's education and can probably be the single greatest force in their success. And whether it's sometimes um simply, you know, coming to a parent-teacher conference or volunteering at her school or showing up at a school board meeting and giving testimony, when you awaken the power within her to champion their child's education, that's a game changer. Because it may not be, you know, it it it does they don't have to be an educator to say, show me your homework or tell me about your day, or or to to volunteer. Um, there, they're you know, and I think too often we undervalue the the capacity of people to do more. And Nothing will move the needle in education is sort of awakening the power of parents, even those who have challenges, even those who may not themselves have had a strong foundation, they can help their children succeed. So, I mean, to me, we can do so much better. And I think even though Northern Kentucky, I will acknowledge our public schools are above average in the Commonwealth. And that is a strength that we can build on. But still, you know, when in a world that only one in kid, you know, two kids are proficient uh region wide, and it's, you know, we we have to do better. And and I I, you know, I kind of look in the mirror first, like what can I do better? And I encourage other people to lean in to make a difference.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Well, you you jumped right into my next question, which is for folks who are listening, um, maybe who who aren't as actively involved in in the education space, what can they do? I I often, whenever I'm speaking to groups, say um at the end of any talk that I have, encourage folks to mentor a child, to serve on a board, or to run for public office. Actually, you've done all three. So what would you suggest in in our local community that folks could do to feel part of this movement of trying to improve outcomes for our local youth?

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Well, I will begin by saying every single person listening to this podcast can contribute to public education. And I really encourage them to do it. Um, whether it's as an individual, as an organization, as a business, there are so many ways to contribute. And let me specifically direct folks if you go to educate nky.org, we have a page where we link you to opportunities to get involved. But if you're as a as a as an individual, you can simply volunteer. There's um, you know, the one-on-one reading where you can, you know, read to a second grader. There's um be a mentor, both partners for change and big brothers, big sisters um are great mentoring organizations in northern Kentucky where you can mentor, if you want to mentor a third or fourth grader or a middle school student, or a high school student, you can choose your own adventure. If you are part of a business, you can uh join adopt a class, uh, you know, in in and you know, build a team that's gonna spend an hour a month in a River City school, sort of sharing the workforce opportunities with you. There are so many great nonprofits that would love to see everyone volunteer and contribute. You can also join a nonprofit board, you can get involved in a site-based decision-making council, you can lean in. So all of this is on our website. Right. And my point is like every single person has something to contribute. And if it's, you know, if we're all doing this together, we can elevate our schools and ultimately nothing will make for a stronger community than than when our kids are thriving and and focused on their future.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Absolutely. I, you know, know that horizon started in 2017. We're still, yeah, I would say we're we're in our toddler stage now. We're we're approaching uh almost 10 years actually. So maybe we're feeling a little bit older than that. But educate NKY is pretty young. Um, I know at our outset, folks would often ask me, what where do you see horizon in 10 years? Like what's your big picture? What would your dream be? What do you see as big picture, your dream for educate NKY if it were successful? What would that look like?

SPEAKER_01 25:22

I mean, we right now, I mean, I would say I we envision a world in which the the urban core of Northern Kentucky are river cities and but also are, you know, and not not just the river cities, you know, Florence, Erlinger, Ellesmere, um, are our sort of more populated areas, our destinations. People are moving to them because it's a place where children and family thrive. And, you know, that that's the world we're trying to create. We're not gonna do it alone. We're only gonna do it with the community lanes in. But we believe that's possible. And we know that if we can serve the the urban core, the whole region's gonna elevate. Because I think that's our theory of change, that if we can elevate outcomes for kids in Covington and Newport and Ludlow and Bellevue and Dayton and Southgate, among others, the whole region will thrive and do better. Because one thing that's true in Northern Kentucky is our economy is vibrant. Our greatest sticking point is we don't have enough skilled workers for the jobs that we have. Yes. And so this isn't just the right thing to do, it's also critical to our long-term vibrancy. And we are just trying to be a catalyst to to help the region live up to its full potential.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

That's incredible. I I want to be part of that vision too. And I hope others who are listening will as well. Uh, final question before we go. What gives you hope for Northern Kentucky?

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Well, the again, it's why I came here, the people. Yeah. Like I I've I've lived in a lot of places. And I, you know, I just I moved here immediately from Cupertino, um, California, land of, you know, Apple, you know, apple. Apple everything. Apple everything. Uh and you know, the the people here are just delightful. The quality of life is it's easy, it's easy to underappreciate it. I'm not saying the weather is as good here as it is uh in in the Bay Area, but the people more than make up for it. And so um, it's just, but I think the danger is it's easy to get complacent. It's easy to be so happy in your sort of community of choice that you realize that like we can do better, we can do more. And I actually think the future of this region is so great because the people will get us there, um, but only if everyone leads it.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Wise words. We need to stay inspired and challenge ourselves, is what I'm hearing. Um, I'm so grateful for your time today. Thank you for for joining us. And uh until next time for our listeners, this is common good for the commonwealth.