Trying to Attract the Tourists

Unique tourism campaigns are nothing new. Governing magazine recently highlighted several:

As the saying goes, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. That’s exactly what South Dakota did with a new tourism approach a few years ago.

After hearing from focus groups across the country that the Dakotas were nothing more than a “barren wasteland,” the state tourism agency came up with a unique campaign angle: At least we’re not Mars, an actual barren wasteland.

The voiceover in a TV ad says: “Mars. The air: not breathable. The surface: cold and barren. … South Dakota. Progressive. Productive. And abundant in oxygen. Why die on Mars when you can live in South Dakota?”

Their efforts may have paid off: The state has had a record number of tourists in the past two years. 

Instagram on the Road

Last year, Minnesota decided to tackle the perception that the state is just a cold, snowy place by bringing its attractions to you. Really.

Explore Minnesota Tourism, the state’s tourism committee, created traveling photo booths featuring two of the state’s main attractions: the First Avenue music club, which was featured in the 1984 Prince movie Purple Rain, and scenes of the Minnesota outdoors.

The state set up the booths in cities across the country, ranging from Denver to Chicago to Kansas City, and modeled them after Instagram to encourage people to share their photos on social media.

The Prince booth came complete with a fog machine, purple lighting and a drum kit, while the other booth featured a canoe and a machine that generated morning mist and bird calls.

Come Get an Operation

San Diego doesn’t need to do much to convince people to visit: It has legendary beaches, a world-famous zoo and plenty of sunshine. Even so, the city is now betting it can convince tourists to get that elective surgery they’ve always wanted in between getting a tan or frolicking on the beach.

In 2017, city leaders launched DestinationCare San Diego, a public-private partnership to get more tourists to think of San Diego as a place to get medical care — and recover afterwards. The city hopes to compete with world-renowned medical destinations like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota or the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

The city does have a strong medical sector. It’s home to the University of California health systems and Rady Children’s Hospital, which is ranked one of the best children’s hospitals in the country.

Report: No Room for Rivalry in School Reform

The contentious relationship between traditional public schools and charter schools needs to end, according to a report issued as part of a Brookings Institution project. There are lessons to be learned, the authors say, from both the successes and failures of charter operations. Pilot programs in Houston and Denver are demonstrating the potential. The Christian Science Monitor reports:

Early data show that the strategy – applied in Houston and Denver pilot programs – yielded “promising” results, according to the report, titled "Learning from the Successes and Failures of Charter Schools" and released Thursday by the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution.

The study could help improve cooperation between charter schools and traditional schools, which have often viewed each other as competitors. The debate about whether charter schools or traditional schools are more effective is a false one and misses the central point, said secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the Hamilton Project’s education forum Thursday in Washington.

“The question isn’t: Do we need more charter schools, traditional schools, gifted schools, or magnet schools?” he said. “We need better public schools. Kids don’t know what kind of school they go to. All they ask is, ‘Do I have a good teacher?’ ”

The report focuses on the work that Harvard economics professor Roland Fryer did with the Houston Independent School District (HISD) to develop a pilot program targeting nine of Houston’s lowest-performing middle and high schools in 2010-11 and 11 elementary schools in 2011-12.

Dr. Fryer, who is the faculty director of Harvard’s Education Innovations Laboratories (EdLabs), studied 35 charter schools in New York and discovered the top five practices that separate low- and high-achieving charter schools: (1) extended time at school, (2) strong administrators and teachers, (3) data-driven instruction, (4) small-group tutoring, and (5) creating a “culture of high expectations.”

It’s Good to be (Sun) King

Chamber member Sun King Brewery (Indianapolis) recently returned from the 30th annual Great American Beer Festival in Denver with some serious hardware. (Check out the Huffington Post article.)The brewery reports:

Sun King Brewing Co. is proud to announce that it was the recipient of eight medals at the 30th annual Great American Beer Festival. Not only did Sun King lead the field in total medal count, its four Gold Medals were the most won by any single brewery.

The winning entries were:

  • Gold Medal, Coffee Beer, JAVA MAC
  • Gold Medal, Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale, BUFFALO SLUMBER
  • Gold Medal, Classic Irish-Dry Stout, RING OF DINGLE
  • Gold Medal, Scotch Ale, WEE MUCKLE
  • Silver Medal, Wood and Barrel Aged Beer, WEE POGUE
  • Silver Medal, Wood and Barrel Aged Strong Beer, BOURBON BARREL JOHAN
  • Silver Medal, American-Style or International Pilsner, POPCORN PILSNER
  • Bronze Medal, Barley Wine-Style Ale, JOHAN THE BARLEYWINE

Hosted by the Brewer’s Association, the GABF is the largest commercial beer competition in the world, with 3,930 beers vying for Gold, Silver, or Bronze medals. Those beers are rated in 83 categories and Indiana breweries had the highest winning rate by state at 19.2% (10 medals out of 52 total entries).

Three other Indiana brewers took home hardware at the GABF.

  • Silver Medal, German-Style Marzen, MUNSTER FEST (Three Floyds, Munster, Ind.)
  • Silver Medal, Scottish-Style Ale, NAUGHTY SCOT (Rock Bottom – College Park, Indianapolis)*
  • Bronze Medal, American-Style Brett Ale, GRIMALKIN – SUPER KITTY FANTASTICO (Brugge Brasserie, Indianapolis)

Education Reform With a Capital ‘R’

The challenges are no different than those many school districts are facing — unacceptable dropout rates, continually disappointing test scores and an overall environment of "disconnection" between educators and their students.

The solutions for many are to tinker around the edges, adjust a regulation or adopt a policy to try to spark change. While well-intentioned, the results often disapppoint. In an opposite take on the old saying — if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it — education in many places is broke and requires a radical fix.

Implementation won’t begin fully until next year and ultimate results will be years down the road, but let’s give a Denver-area school district kudos for trying. How does doing away with traditional grade levels and strategically involving students in lesson plans grab you for starters? Students will advance when they have proven mastery of that subject. The Christian Science Monitor reports:

The district is training teachers to involve students in the lesson plan in a far greater way than before – the students articulate their goals and develop things such as a code of conduct as a classroom. And when children fall short of understanding the material, they keep working at it. The only "acceptable" score to move on to the next lesson is the equivalent of a "B" in normal grading – hopefully showing proficiency and giving kids a better foundation as they move on to more advanced concepts. Advocates sometimes describe it as flipping the traditional system around so that time, rather than mastery of material, is the variable.

While the idea of "standards-based education," as it’s often known, has been around for a while, the only public district where it’s been tried for any length of time is in Alaska, where the Chugach district – whose 250 students are scattered over 22,000 square miles – went from the lowest performing district in the state to Alaska’s highest-performing quartile in five years in the 1990s, a shift the former superintendent, Richard DeLorenzo, attributes to the new philosophy.

Even before the opening bell, I give a hearty "A" for effort. Read the story here. Let us know what you think.

GOP, Dems Working on Overhauling Primary Process

Are you so burned out on politics by this point that you’ve placed a V-chip block on MSNBC and Fox News, and are focused solely on your fantasy football draft or the home stretch of "Project Runway?"

I wouldn’t know about that last part, just that it’s a popular show right now … but isn’t Michael Kors always just so right on in his critiques? I definitely agree with him more than I do with Nina Garcia. What?

Anyway,  according to a Stateline report, both the GOP and Democrats are using convention time this year to revamp their primary processes by 2012 in an effort to prevent such a long, drawn out effort.

Democrats plan to create a commission this week to draw up a new calendar and process for the 2012 presidential nominating schedule, while Republicans will likewise begin meeting this Wednesday (Aug. 27) to discuss a possible overhaul of the primary calendar in advance of their own convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul Sept. 1-4.