The National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) is a nonprofit partnership of educators, business, and labor leaders dedicated to improving the economic literacy of today’s youngsters. Founded in 1949, the National Council is comprised of a nationwide network of affiliated state councils and university-based centers whose mission is to train teachers and provide curriculum materials for grades kindergarten through twelve. Locally, the BerryCollegeCenter for Economic Education – one of twelve centers shattered around the state - provides instructional materials, professional development, and technical assistance to Rome and FloydCounty teachers.

The goal of improving our children’s economic literacy has never been more critical. A national survey in April 2000 reported that 50% of the high school students polled did not know what a federal deficit is. Sixty percent did not understand the role profits play in corporations, 70% could not explain the meaning of inflation and a shocking 60% believed wages are set by the government. The price of such economic illiteracy is more than our nation can afford. Do we want another generation unfamiliar with the basics of saving and investing and the uses of money and credit? Does our nation need more adults with money problems, career problems, and credit problems?

The only way to develop an economically literate citizenry is through the schools, in the classroom, one teacher at a time, one student at a time. That is why the National Council on Economic Education instituted the EconomicsAmerica Program. EconomicsAmerica assisted in the development of national content standards in economics and supported legislation to require economics in the nation’s schools. At the state level, the Georgia Council on Economic Education has identified the economics concepts contained in the state’s Quality Core Curriculum (QCC) and was involved in the development of the high school End-of-Course Exam. The National Council’s EconomicsAmerica program has published classroom materials for K-12 students and made instructional strategies available to teachers. These economics materials are designed to stand alone or to be integrated into social studies, language arts, math or science. The most recent National Council materials, entitled Financial Fitness for Life, are K-12 materials designed to help students apply economics and decision-making skills to the real world of earning and spending an income, saving, using credit, and managing money. Student workbooks, teacher guides, and parent workbooks for grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12 are now available to our local schools through the BerryCollegeCenter.

In addition to Financial Fitness for Life, and numerous other print materials, the National Council on Economic Education makes available at no charge to Rome and Floyd County teachers a number of audiovisual and computer materials. Among the most popular programs are the Stock Market Game, a computer simulation played by thousands of Georgia students in both middle and high school, and the CD-ROM “Virtual Economics” which contains over 60,000 pages of instructional materials. Teachers of the state-mandated high school course also have a wide variety of economics materials available to them to enliven their classes.