Council on Economic Education in Maryland
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
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
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.
Where we work
External reviews

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Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
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.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
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.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
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.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
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
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild 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 directorsas of 01/19/2023
KAren Gibbs
The Gibbs Perspective
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
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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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
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
No data
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 01/19/2023GuideStar 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
- 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.