Alabama Council on Economic Education, Inc.

ACEE workshops provides economics training and resources to teachers throughout Alabama. Limited professional development funding is available to teachers in Alabama public schools. Understanding economics and personal finance gives students lifelong confidence that they can comprehend the world in Which they work, save, and spend, and empowers them with the competence to make decisions as consumers, homeowners, and employers or employees (Stern 2002). Alabama students, both college-bound and those who opt for employment rather than college, will be required throughout their lives to make economics decisions important for their own success. A thorough understanding of economics will contribute not only to their personal success, but to the success of the businesses, institutions and governments in which they participate. Years of research on economic education for pre-college students and their teachers Concludes the following: pre-college students, from kindergarten to high school seniors, can and do learn economics and financial concepts when taught by teachers who know economics and know how to teach it (Grimes and Millea 2011; Schug and Wood 2010). Research studies of teacher-training effects on students consistently find that statistically significant increases in student learning are associated with higher levels of teacher training (Swinton et al 2007). Training teachers to use particular curriculum materials is shown to be highly successful for student success (Swinton, Scafidi, and Woodard 2011; Clark et al 2011). Evidence from the Council for Economic Education (CEE) international Train the Trainers programs supports this conclusion as well (Grimes and Millea 2011). Teaching the teacher influences economics education because the trained and enthused teacher has a positive impact on new groups of students year after year, throughout their teaching career.

After reading a story, students are given lesson plans about an economic term that was emphasized. The students then illustrate the concept which is then entered in the Color the Concepts Contest.

The Economics Challenge encourages students to apply their economic knowledge as they work in teams to win state, regional and national awards.

The Alabama Stock Market Game (SMG) is an exciting 10-week, on-line trading experience. Students begin with $100,000 and may purchase stocks, bonds, and mutual funds and make any number of trades with their available funds. The teams with the most valuable portfolios at the end of the 10 weeks win their division.

The goal of this program is to encourage students to compete in the National Personal Finance Challenge to reinforce their learning through healthy competition. ACEE will present a series of workshops in various locations around the State of Alabama. Teachers will receive everything they need to bring personal finance and investment education into their classrooms including training, curriculum materials, and easy-to-use lesson plans. Teachers will also learn how to participate in the Personal Finance Challenge. Teachers register teams of students, who then take the tests online. The top-scoring team will become the State Champion and go on to compete in the National Personal Finance Challenge. All curricula is correlated to Alabama Course of Study and the National Voluntary Content standards.