posted October 7, 2008
) Mark McCormick's Kaleidoscope students balance their "check books" while studying economics at Chattanooga Valley Elementary. |
To bring the latest in economics and financial literacy to Chattanooga Valley Elementary School, Academic Coach Tracy Llewellyn attended last week's EconomicsAmerica Conference, hosted by the Georgia Council on Economic Education (GCEE).
The conference featured instructional blocks for school district administrators on teaching teachers economics lessons for K-12 students. Attendees were also introduced to new programs on international trade and the Georgia economy.
Thirty-nine EconomicsAmerica coordinators attending the conference received instruction in content and grade-appropriate materials for helping teachers improve their instructional skills in economics and personal finance, subjects many teachers are not always familiar with when they leave college. These trained professionals then return to their school systems to train other teachers in these methods. "This is exactly what we need to be able to deliver content knowledge to the teachers," commented one coordinator.
EconomicsAmerica is a nationwide network in schools around Georgia and across the country that delivers instructional resources in economics to teachers. In Georgia, there are 113 public school systems and 31 independent schools participating in the EconomicsAmerica network. GCEE administers the network in Georgia.
GCEE specializes in providing training for Georgia teachers through workshops and instructional materials. A 2007 study of 166,000 test scores from Georgia high school students in more than 4,000 classes between 2004 and 2006 indicate that students in classes taught by teachers who had attended GCEE workshops score significantly higher statistically than other students, and that the more GCEE workshops a teacher attends, the better the student test scores.
According to GCEE Executive Director, Dr. David Martin, many GCEE workshops are offered at no charge, something cash-strapped school systems can take advantage of to help their teachers improve their instructional skills in economics. High school test scores in economics have gone up in Georgia and are now higher than all but one of the eight subjects tested in the state-mandated End of Course Tests.
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