The Get Schooled Foundation Launches Nationwide "Wake Up and Get Schooled" Campaign Aimed at Encouraging More Students to Get to School Every Day

NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As students across the country get back into the swing of school, too many teenagers are stepping out and missing class, putting themselves at risk of falling behind or dropping out.  The Get Schooled Foundation today launched the Wake Up and Get Schooled campaign aimed at encouraging more students to get to school every day.  A diverse group of celebrity entertainers and athletes are donating their time and talent to offer these youth a wake-up call.

Students nationwide can sign up on GetSchooled.com beginning today to receive phone calls with pre-recorded morning wake up messages from some of their favorite celebrities including Baron Davis, Ciara, Cappie Pondexter, Greyson Chance, Jesse McCartney, Nicki Minaj, Trey Songz, and Wiz Khalifa. Additional celebrities are recording wake up calls every day.

The pre-recorded messages, running throughout the school year until June 2012, stress the importance of getting up and going to school every day. Studies show that students with more than 10 absences in a school year risk falling behind. Students with more than 20 absences have only a one-in-five chance of graduating.  

The wake-up calls are being supported by Viacom, a founding partner of Get Schooled, through a 30-second public service announcement airing across Viacom Media Networks this fall and digital promotion through Paramount Pictures.  AOL is featuring Get Schooled on the Daily Impact section of its homepage and created a permanent profile for Get Schooled on the AOL Impact site, which is a space for people to learn more about organizations making an impact and find ways to take action. Several cities around the country have also partnered with Get Schooled in promoting the wake-up calls as part of their attendance improvement initiatives, including Los Angeles, New York City, Oakland, San Antonio, and Seattle.

Marie Groark, Executive Director of the Get Schooled Foundation, said, "One of the key factors in students graduating and succeeding in their educational goals is merely getting them to campus in the first place.  By using the power of celebrity and persuasion, we are encouraging students to wake up and get schooled!"

The program is modeled on WakeUp! NYC, developed by the New York City Mayor's Truancy Task Force and the NYC Department of Education as part of a comprehensive effort to reduce chronic absenteeism in high-need schools.

"We are delighted that The Get Schooled Foundation is taking WakeUp! NYC to a national level," said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. "Reducing chronic absenteeism is critical to improving educational outcomes and graduation rates for our students here, and across the nation."

In addition to the wake-up calls, the Get Schooled Foundation is supporting broad efforts around the country to engage students in their education, encourage parents to support that engagement, and build school cultures where missing classes is not an option.  Beginning in October, close to 100 schools across the country will participate in the Get Schooled Attendance Challenge – a friendly competition that encourages students, teachers and school communities to come together to improve attendance rates.  Anyone can watch the challenge in action by following participating schools' progress on leaderboards at www.getschooled.com beginning October 3.

About Get Schooled:

Get Schooled engages and empowers Americans to help improve high school graduation rates, improve college readiness and raise college completion rates.  It is the only consumer-facing education initiative that aims to complement and support the work of the broader education reform community by leveraging the creative talent, digital and media assets and resources of the country's top media and consumer brands to truly connect with Americans.  An independent non-profit organization, the Get Schooled Foundation's founders include Viacom and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with significant support from AT&T.

SOURCE Get Schooled Foundation