Springdale Schools Take Economics Seriously

— Lisa Taylor finds an economics-related issue in whatever subject she happens to be teaching her fourth- and fifth-graders at Shaw Elementary.

At A Glance

Economics Arkansas

Economics Arkansas is a private, nonprofit educational organization founded in 1962 to promote economic literacy in Arkansas. The Little Rock-based organization trains K-12 teachers on how to incorporate principles of economics and personal finance into the classroom curriculum. To learn more, visit economicsarkansas.o….

Source: Staff Report

Such was the case when her class read the book “Esperanza Rising,” about a Mexican girl who is forced to flee to California with her mother during the Great Depression and live in a camp for Mexican farm workers.

The class discussed ways money influenced Esperanza’s mother’s decisions.

“You can pull economics out of everything,” Taylor said.

Taylor has earned the distinction of being a master economics teacher through a variety of training. She uses that training almost every day.

Sue Owens, director of Economics Arkansas, said Springdale has been a model of economics education for all the districts in the state.

Both teachers and students in Springdale have recently been noted for accomplishments. Some examples:

  • Hundreds of teams from the district participate each year in the virtual stock market computer game.

  • The district’s three middle schools participated in an annual economic competition hosted by John Brown University in November, in which students organized into teams and wrote business plans around original product ideas. Competing against five other teams, the three Springdale teams won two first-place awards and three second-place awards.

  • The district offers an annual professional development training session in January with state and national economic consultants offering information and modeling curriculum. The next workshop is scheduled for Jan. 25. About 100 teachers are expected to participate, with about 80 percent expected to be from Springdale.

Jo Vanderspikken, the district’s economics and gifted education program administrator, said the district begins teaching kids economic terms at a very early age.

“The children are already learning words, like scarcity,” Vanderspikken said. “They learn you can’t have everything you want.”

The district wants students to be financially literate so they will make smarter choices as consumers, she said.

Lynn Massey, a gifted and talented teacher at Harp and Lee elementary schools, won an award this year from Economics Arkansas for the innovative projects she designed for her students.

Her fourth-graders operated a school store at Harp, which they called MasseyMart and where they sold items they made. The items ranged in cost from 25 cents to $7.50. Students also worked in the store. Most of the profit was donated to scholarship funds and other good causes, Massey said, though some was retained as seed money for future projects.

“I’m real big about teaching them customer service,” Massey said. “That’s very important as they grow to actually work and have jobs, that they understand customer service is important. I model that for them and watch how they do that.”

And to help run the store, the students occasionally gave up some of their free time, including recess time. That teaches them responsibility.

“Our kids have said, ‘Wow, I now know why my parents have to work so hard for their money. Now I know why they want to make sure what we’re buying is something we really need or want,’” Massey said.

Taylor’s students last year held a flower market where they sold flower baskets for Mother’s Day. They not only sold their products, they also had to advertise them.

Her students also participated in the stock market game, which led to debates about which stocks were the best buys.

“If you get something that’s high at the time, it could go higher, but if it’s really high it only has one place to go, and that’s down,” said Janson Sanders, one of Taylor’s students.

Collin Thompson, 9, said the stock market game taught her about taking risks.

“Risk is when you take a chance and don’t really know what’s going to happen,” Collin said.

Superintendent Jim Rollins has served on the Economics Arkansas Board of Trustees for 28 years.

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