Arizona PBS and Arizona Public Media announce At Home Learning partnership to provide educational content to teachers, students affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis

Go straight to online resources for grades K-12.

With the recent decision by Gov. Doug Ducey to close schools as part of the effort to curtail the spread of the coronavirus in the state, Arizona PBS and Arizona Public Media have partnered to provide educational content to students and educators.

The Arizona At Home Learning partnership supports remote education for students through a suite of free digital resources and an educational broadcast schedule of programs aligned with state curriculum standards. The website and programming have been endorsed by the Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and are slated to launch on Monday, March 23.

“These school closures challenge teachers, parents and caregivers to find ways of keeping kids and teenagers engaged and learning,” said Arizona PBS general manager Mary Mazur. “As community-based public broadcasters with a mission to support education across our state, our stations are stepping up to provide trusted, high-quality resources to students and educators.”

“As we continue to navigate the ever-changing coronavirus crisis, our stations remain committed to our core mission of inspiring, educating, and informing audiences through trusted, quality programming,” said Jack Gibson, CEO of Arizona Public Media. “One of our top priorities during this trying time is to provide teachers, students, and parents with educational programming and resources while they deal with the new realities of widespread school closures.”

Arizona PBS and Arizona Public Media will dedicate their weekday daytime schedule to educational programming curated by educators and programmers across the PBS system. The new 5 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. schedule includes specific blocks of time for students in pre-K through 12th grade and covers subjects including English language arts, social studies, science and math.

“Our hope is that this solution will bridge the gap for families and students who only have access over the air,” said Kim Flack, director of education and community impact at Arizona PBS. “We hope to be a valuable supplement to schools’ remote learning efforts by providing these standards-based materials.”

On Arizona PBS channels in Phoenix and across Central and Northern Arizona:

• PBS KIDS programming for pre-k – grade 3 will remain in the 5 a.m. – 6:30 a.m. hours on Arizona PBS, then will continue uninterrupted on Arizona PBS KIDS or at pbskids.org.
• Programs for grades 4-8 will air on Arizona PBS from 6:30 a.m. to noon
• Programs for grades 9-12 will air on Arizona PBS from 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., after which regular news and primetime programming will resume.

For more information on how to access Arizona PBS channels, visit https://azpbs.org/arizona-pbs-on-demand/our-channel-offerings/

On Arizona Public Media channels in Tucson and Southern Arizona:

• PBS KIDS programming for pre-k – grade 3 will remain in the 4 a.m. – 10 a.m. hours on PBS 6 then will continue uninterrupted on PBS KIDS or at pbskids.org.
• Programs geared toward grades 9-12 will air on PBS 6 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., after which regular news and primetime programming will resume.
• Programs for grades 4-8 will air on PBS 6 PLUS from 6 a.m. – 6 p.m.

For more information on how to access channels in Southern Arizona over the air, visit tv.azpm.org/channel-finder.

The primetime schedules for both Arizona PBS and Arizona Public Media will remain the same PBS programs and original local content that viewers love and expect.

“Arizona PBS covers 80% of the state with our free, over-the-air broadcast signal, and the entire state with our education and community impact team,” Mazur said. “With the partnership of Arizona Public Media, we can support all of Arizona. I am grateful to our education, broadcasting and technology departments for quickly pulling these resources together to benefit all the communities we serve.”

Arizona PBS and Arizona Public Media continue to promote PBS LearningMedia as a resource for educators in their efforts to provide content and support to students and their parents. Both stations will continue to coordinate with Kathy Hoffman, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, school districts locally, PBS member stations in the region, and PBS Kids & Education nationally to share updates as they become available.

Resources for grades K-12 covering all subject areas will be added weekly to azpbs.org/athomelearning and azpm.org/distancelearning.

Arizona PBS is also collecting educational resources families and educators may need while schools are closed at https://azpbs.org/2020/03/education-resources-while-schools-are-closed/.

Input from parents and teachers about specific needs for facilitating home learning is also welcome. Please contact Kimberly Flack, Arizona PBS Director of Education and Community Impact, or Cheryl Gerken, AZPM Educational Outreach Coordinator, with questions or suggestions.

About Arizona PBS:

Arizona PBS is one of the nation’s leading public media organizations, with four broadcast channels and a growing array of digital platforms. A trusted community resource for more than five decades, Arizona PBS fosters lifelong learning through quality programming, in-depth news coverage and critical educational outreach services. It is one of the country’s largest public television stations, reaching 80 percent of Arizona homes and 1.9 million households each week through four channels. Arizona PBS has been part of ASU since the station launched in 1961. Arizona PBS is a member-supported community service of Arizona State University and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. For more information, visit azpbs.org.

About Arizona Public Media:

Arizona Public Media (AZPM) is an editorially independent, nonprofit public service of the University of Arizona (UA) and provides three television program services (PBS 6, PBS 6 Plus, and PBS Kids), four radio services (NPR 89.1, Classical 90.5, Jazz 89.1 HD2 and the BBC World Service) and a variety of online program offerings at azpm.org. AZPM is funded through the generous support of annual and sustaining members, the business community through program underwriting, fee-for-service production activities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and direct and in-kind support from UA. Arizona Public Media® and AZPM® are registered trademarks of the Arizona Board of Regents, which holds the FCC broadcast licenses for all AZPM stations, for the benefit of the University of Arizona. More information about AZPM, including program schedules and Video-on-Demand offerings, can be found online at azpm.org.