|
The Virginia Council on Economic Education's mission is straightforward and critical: provide Virginia’s K-12 students with the economic knowledge and financial skills needed to thrive in our dynamic economy.
In 1969, J. Curtis Hall, Dean of the VCU School of Business, and prominent business and education leaders saw a gap between what young people needed to know about economics and what they were being taught. They established the Virginia Council on Economic Education, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit entity, to leverage the collective intelligence, resources, and spirit of state government, local school divisions, universities, business leaders, and teachers to open the doors of economic and financial literacy to Virginia’s students.
An Efficient and Effective Model: Partnerships with Teachers
Teacher education is VCEE’s primary means for reaching students. One teacher can reach hundreds or even thousands of students over the span of the teacher’s career.
In partnership with ten colleges and universities, and with financial support raised by VCEE from individuals, foundations, businesses and the Commonwealth, VCEE has a statewide network of university-based centers for economic education which:
- build and nurture ongoing partnerships with Virginia’s school divisions and their teachers;
- provide professional development workshops for teachers to help them more fully understand the essentials of economics and personal finance that today’s students need; and
- provide creative, hands-on lesson plans and curriculum teachers can use to help teach these concepts to their students.
Annually, VCEE’s affiliated centers for economic education provide more than 200 workshops reaching more than 4,000 K-12 teachers and providing them resources and materials they can use to help students become:
- competent decision makers;
- productive employees and innovative entrepreneurs;
- informed consumers and thoughtful investors;
- reasoned voters; and
- financially responsible individuals.
Statewide programs are also available to help teachers motivate their students to learn. They include:
Stock Market Game ™
Mini-Economy and Mini-Society®
Economics Challenge
A strong advocate. VCEE has been a driving force behind getting economics and personal finance into Virginia’s K-12 classrooms. It seeks to be a partner with, and resource for, the Virginia Department of Education and Board of Education, as well as for local school divisions.
Part of a national effort. VCEE is affiliated with and accredited by the Council For Economic Education which has member organizations in every state.
The gap is still serious. Far too many of our young people don’t understand how to manage credit cards, don’t know the difference between inflation and recession, how government spending affects them, or how our free enterprise and market system work so that they can be effective participants.
As the primary statewide organization dedicated to providing Virginia’s educators with the background and quality resources they need to help Virginia's students become economically and financially literate, VCEE believes it's critical to double its efforts. Doing so will pay dividends every day.
|
