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Spring 2007

This is the first issue of LearnmoreMN Update — a quarterly e-newsletter about the LearnmoreMN Web resource. This Web site highlights our state's need to address its education challenges. It is also a place for sharing viewpoints and ideas about how to prepare more high school graduates to go on to college.

In this issue

Keep up with what's new
LearnmoreMN advertising begins
Weigh in with your thoughts
Join in

Keep up with what's new

There is new content on the LearnmoreMN Web site every week. The best way to view the most recent additions is to visit the What's new page. Here is a sampling of content highlighted on this page in the past month or so:
  • Two new entries on What Others Are Saying About the Challenges:
    Boomer wave will require new priorities (Feb. 27, 2007), Star Tribune — Boomer retirements "...eventually will force the state to rethink everything...."

    We Are Still Losing the Competitive Advantage (March 2007), American Electronics Association — "...we found that the competitiveness challenges confronting the United States have intensified."
  • On the Solutions Resources page:
    Getting Serious About College Readiness (March 22, 2007), Inside Higher Ed — "All states need explicit readiness standards in reading and math, and they need to bring postsecondary education and K-12 schools together to develop such standards and to implement them."
  • A new Success Story:
    Admission Possible — "Overall, 98% of the students assisted by the program have been admitted to college and more than 80% are persisting in college or have already graduated."
  • A new entry on the Educational Attainment Trends page:
    "Minnesota Measures 2007" — a report by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, shows that Minnesota excels in some areas, but often performs at or near the national average on indicators important to the state's educational and economic vitality.
  • A summary version of the Presentation
    See the abbreviated presentation, LearnmoreMN: Challenges Summary (PDF or PowerPoint)

To stay up on the latest LearnmoreMN information, you also can scan the red boxes on the home page for links to the latest study, headline or discussion post. Another option is to subscribe to our RSS feeds — there's one for the discussion forum and one for the rest of the LearnmoreMN site. Users of RSS content use programs called feed "readers" or "aggregators" that list new content on feeds to which they subscribe. Find out more about RSS

LearnmoreMN advertising begins

Two new ads are helping to build public awareness of LearnmoreMN and dramatize the challenges facing Minnesota students. In one, a giant backpack dwarfs two students, with the headline "Getting an education shouldn’t be so imposing." In the other, a middle-school-aged girl looks up at a tall desk with an out-of-reach computer, with the headline "An education shouldn’t be inaccessible."

These ads, running April through June, are targeted at audiences who need more information about the importance of higher education to our state’s future. Print ads will run in business publications including Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Minnesota Business, Twin Cities Business, Business North (Duluth), Business Central (St. Cloud), Connect Magazine (Mankato and South Central Minn.) and Prairie Business (Western Minn.). And because high school and college graduation trends are especially challenging among students from low-income families, new immigrant groups and communities of color — several ethnic publications were also chosen for the print ads. They include Asian Pages, Hmong Times, La Prensa, Gente de MN, Insight News, Spokesman-Recorder, One Nation News and The Circle.

View the print ads

A number of online ads will also appear on startribune.com, mpr.org, twincities.com (Pioneer Press), twincities.bizjournals.com, blackmusicamerica.com and businessnorth.com. In addition, underwriting messages will run on Minnesota Public Radio broadcasts

Weigh in with your thoughts

If you haven't visited LearnmoreMN lately, now would be a great time. One new reason is the discussion forum post from Tom Kingston, president of the Wilder Foundation — Putting Students on a Path to College Success: Start Early, Expect Much and Use Common Sense. The foundation’s success with school reform is based on a model of research-based curriculum, more time on task, and removing barriers to learning.

Visit the discussion forum to weigh in with your view on how you think we can best improve school success. Or, join the discussion on any topics posted so far. If the posting process seems daunting, we can help put up your thoughts if you contact Debbie at dboyles@mnprivatecolleges.org.

Join in

The LearnmoreMN Web site was envisioned as a “village well” — a place where people concerned about education and our state's future can obtain and share information. Consider these options for getting involved with the LearnmoreMN community: