Education News

MPR News keeps track of the latest education news in Minnesota so you can understand the events shaping the future of learning and how it impacts students at any level.

Stay informed about local education events, policies and more happening in schools and colleges across Minnesota.

Goldy ain’t cool: Because the Gopher is not on this list of 12 coolest college football mascots. But a tiger is? And a bulldog? And a Spartan? Zzzzzzz. Now that’s a project: Listen to this audio about Century College Student Andy Richardson, who built a solar air furnace for his garage.  It’s all about money: In…
Strategies for lowering drinking in college
A new school year begins soon for college students around the country, and school leaders are concerned about the rate of binge drinking among those students. Nationally, more than 1,400 students die every year in alcohol-related incidents.
Kit from Pittsburgh, USA via Wikimedia Commons Success at this has little to do with rankings Tired of college rankings? Zac Bissonnette sure is. The author of Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching Off My Parents — called by a Washington Post writer the best and most…
DRust via Flickr No change in social norms here   In light of the new fall semester, on today’s Morning Edition, Phil Picardi interviewed Toben Nelson, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health on what colleges can do to curb student drinking.  Nelson’s work was the subject of a piece last…
NPR: What the Beloit Mindset really tells us
  ProfessorMortis via Flickr Let’s rethink this Linda Holmes writes on NPR’s Monkey See blog that the Beloit College Mindset List says more about the mindset of the authors than it does about each year’s crop of freshmen. (In this year’s list, the authors say students see Clint Eastwood as a director of thoughtful movies — not…
Foreign students coming back: China has helped push international student applications to U.S. graduate schools past their 2003 level, which was the point before 9/11-related visa restrictions drove them down. American grad schools, however, continue to send fewer offers of admission to two of the largest producers of such students, India and South Korea. The…
Business: A solution to the remedial mess
noaidstaskforce via Flickr TFA: A way to curb the need for remedial work? The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce’s Bill Blazar writes on the LearnmoreMN blog that the state is putting too much into remedial education in college, and calls for change in the K-12 system. He advocates alternative teacher licensure as a way to get professionals more…
When to show up for class
Lorianne DiSabato via Flickr They’re waiting for you Party while you can, students. On Monday it’s time to get serious. That’s when a slew of colleges and universities around the state will start their fall terms. Carleton students, however, still have a little time to hang out. They won’t roll in till Sept. 13. Here’s a First Day…
What college is all about: A list of colleges with the highest-earning graduates. No, it has no Minnesota campuses. And no, it’s not really what college is all about. Tommie graduation = spring on campus: Now that construction work at the Univ. of St. Thomas is complete, graduation will be back on campus this year —…