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Council on Economic Education in Maryland

aka Maryland Council on Economic Education   |   Towson, MD   |  www.econed.org

Mission

The mission of the Council is to assure that Maryland's school children leave high school equipped with the economic knowledge and decision-making skills they need to make informed decisions as consumers, workers and citizens. An understanding of basic economic principles and our free enterprise system is vital to an individual's ability to be a responsible consumer, a productive worker, and an informed voter. Considering both the short- and long-term economic consequences of, for example, spending and saving decisions, how much education and training to invest in, what career to choose, and the positions of political candidates on critical issues, is something children must be taught how to do.

Ruling year info

1961

Executive Director

Ms. Julie 50 Weaver

Main address

8000 York Rd

Towson, MD 21252 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

52-0743956

NTEE code info

Primary/Elementary Schools (B24)

Secondary/High School (B25)

Adult, Continuing Education (B60)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2022, 2021 and 2020.
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Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Most Americans are economically and financially illiterate. The health of our economy and communities is dependent upon the ability of our citizens to be productive leaders, innovators, workers, consumers, savers, and participants in a global economy. In years past, an individual could make a few poor financial decisions, learn from them, and continue to prosper. However, in today's world, a single poor decision could impact a person's long-term prosperity, and the prosperity of his/her family, by limited access to a job or to obtaining housing that traditionally have served as wealth creation engines for most people. The lack of financial skills and economic education is essentially handed down through generations and heightens existing barriers for people who are already marginalized. Communities thrive when their citizens thrive. Financial and economic education is the key.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Economic & Financial Literacy

The complexity of our economic world requires that education for economic & financial literacy begin in the primary grades and continue throughout a child's school career (and, indeed, for as long as one lives). The Council, therefore, trains elementary and secondary teachers and provides instructional materials to make economics and personal finance an integral part of a child's learning experience from K to grade 12. The staff helps school systems to develop social studies and business curricula with a strong economics & personal finance dimension. The Council also sponsors the Maryland Stock Market, which is an educational simulation that teaches about the stock markets, the American economic system and the global economy.

Population(s) Served
Children and youth

Where we work

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

For more than 65 years, the Maryland Council on Economic Education (MCEE) has been focused on creating lasting change in communities in Baltimore and throughout Maryland by expanding economic and financial literacy in K-12 students, empowering them to create a more prosperous future for themselves and Maryland.

Our goal is to increase economic and financial literacy through a close partnership with the educational community. We want to impact all students to be contributors to Maryland's economic health and work closely with public school systems, private and parochial schools, home schools, as well as with community organizations that are similarly focused on education.

We also seek to tear down barriers to the knowledge needed to create wealth and individual prosperity through supporting engaging and meaningful economic and financial education in schools. Knowledge affects an individual's ability to assess risks and tolerance for risk affects long-term investment decisions which in turn affect sustainability and quality of life, particularly in retirement. Children and young adults need this critical education to make informed, well measured decisions throughout their lives.

For more than 65 years, the Maryland Council on Economic Education has focused our work in three key areas.

First, we train and resource teachers to enhance the quality of instruction of economic and financial concepts. The vast majority of teachers have had very limited exposure in their own academic career to economics and personal finance coursework and many are not confident in managing their own affairs. As a result, most teachers express very little confidence in sharing these vital concepts with their students. MCEE works to improve teacher skills and confidence through workshops and training seminars, taught by fellow educators, that is focused on both core concepts as well as age appropriate delivery of instruction. We believe their are lessons to be taught in all subject areas and work with teachers from K-12 in math, social studies, language arts, business, ESOL, gifted and talented, JROTC and more.

In addition, we provide transformational hands-on student programs that ignite a passion within the students themselves and sets a path for lifelong learning. We provide programs that provide sustained learning over time, versus a one day experience. One of our key programs is the Stock Market Game Experience which provides a framework for learning about the world of investing, saving and risk management over a three or six month experience. Students learn how to evaluate investment opportunities, how to purchase and sell investment products, how to create wealth over the long term, and how current events can impact short term investment performance. In addition, we provide a year-long Economics Challenge competition Program and a year-long Personal Finance Challenge competition program at the high school level that provides a vehicle for students to apply learning in a case study analysis competition.

And finally, we serve to bring together key community stakeholders to advocate for the expansion of rigorous financial education so that all Marylanders, especially students, have the knowledge needed to make informed financial decisions in today’s complex financial environment. Through regular meetings of our Financial Education Network, we share information about opportunities for expansion in our state and region and work to mobilize resources to support expansion of economics and financial literacy education wherever possible.

The Maryland Council on Economic Education is uniquely positioned to meet our goals through our long history and reputation for success as well as our strong partnerships with the educational community. We have been long recognized as a critical partner to the Maryland State Department of Education and have close relationships with supervisors in all of our 23 county school systems and Baltimore City Schools as well. Our training is well regarded and we are frequently asked to provide Professional Development training for teachers by content area supervisors.

As educators ourselves, we understand teachers and the challenges and rewards of educating students. We also understand how to navigate educational systems and how to include economic and personal finance content into the existing framework and curriculum.

We are respected additionally for reviewing and curating a plethora of age appropriate lessons and resources from variety of free sources to recommend the most robust and engaging resources for teachers. We are not tied to any specific resources and thus can maintain objectivity with a constant focus on what is best for teachers and students.

In 2019, we served 2,347 teachers throughout Maryland's 23 counties and Baltimore City. Over the last five years, we have served 11,372 teachers. Each teacher trained and resourced can impact students for the rest of his/her career. Investing in one teacher can impact thousands of students over a 30 year teaching career.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.
  • Who are the people you serve with your mission?

    The Maryland Council on Economic Education serves the education community in Maryland with a primary focus on K-12 educators. We are guided by a Teacher Advisory Board, made up of teachers from across the state, representing a wide array of grade bands and content areas. In addition, we survey teachers regularly for direct feedback on our programs to make them better and more impactful for the educators that we serve. Our Executive Director is also very transparent about being accessible to teachers at all times. Input from our educators is vital to our organization's mission.

  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals

  • What significant change resulted from feedback?

    One of our key engagement programs is The Stock Market Game, an immersive 10 or 30 week educational experience where teachers in grades 4-12 teach their students about wealth creation through saving and investing. Students build and manage investment portfolios trying to achieve the highest return on investment. Teachers follow a curriculum that walks students through learning key concepts, investment research, team work, and interpreting the impact of local and global news on their portfolios. We offer comprehensive training for teachers to help them lead students through this transformation program. From direct feedback from teachers, we recently completely revamped the training and approach to the curriculum to include ideas and approaches suggested by teachers in the program.

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback

Financials

Council on Economic Education in Maryland
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

Council on Economic Education in Maryland

Board of directors
as of 01/19/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board co-chair

KAren Gibbs

The Gibbs Perspective


Board co-chair

Michelle Coates

PNC Bank

Cyndy Allen

RBC

Karen Gibbs

Gibbs Perspective

Simon Paterson

Brown Advisory

Andy Bauer

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond-Baltimore

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Not applicable
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 10/31/2022

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

No data

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data

Equity strategies

Last updated: 01/19/2023

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Policies and processes
  • We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
  • We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
  • We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.