Promoting Economic Literacy in the NIS


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While many organizations are teaching business and accounting skills to managers of state and newly privatized enterprises in the NIS, one organization, Economics America, is focusing its efforts on economics education for the managers of tomorrow and the public at large. Patricia Elder, Director of Special Projects for Economics America, believes:

The citizens of Russia . . . are undergoing a painful process of change and need a basis to understand what these changes mean. For the reforms to succeed, it is important for the public to understand how business fits in with the welfare of society in general.
Citizens of the NIS are not alone in their need for improved economic literacy. Here in the "stronghold of capitalism," according to a recent Gallup survey more than:

Economics America (EA), The National Council on Economic Education, was founded in 1949 as a partnership of leaders from education, business and labor. Through a nationwide network of state councils and 275 university centers, it works with 2,600 school districts to provide economics education to about 40% of the nation's students. Economics America develops curriculum, produces materials and trains teachers--it is the largest teacher training organization in the United States.

Together with leading educators and economists Economics America has developed a standard of what every student should know about economics. Its publication "A Framework for Teaching Basic Economic Concepts with Scope and Sequence Guidelines, K-12" was designed to aid in the development and teaching of an economic curriculum for students of all ages. And it's not just dry Economics 101 text books. For younger children EA has developed games to help teach basic economic principles such as: division of labor, the effects of increased productivity on the cost of the product, and the costs and benefits of trade. Older students form teams from different schools and compete in a ten-week simulation of Wall Street trading.

Since the summer of 1992 Economics America has been working with educators in the NIS to help develop economic education curricula. EA has organized seminars in economics content and teaching methods for more than 600 teacher trainers, teachers and school administrators in Azerbaijan, Estonia, Russia, and Ukraine. It has helped establish the International Center for Business and Economic Education in Russia, which now has 12 regional branches, and a center in Kharkiv, Ukraine. In the future EA plans to contribute instructional materials for translation, provide training in curricula and materials development, and initiate a campaign to promote basic economic understanding among the general public.

For more information, contact:

Patricia Elder
Director of Special Projects
Economics America
1140 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Tel: (212) 730-7007
Fax: (212) 730-1793
E-mail: [email protected]


This article is from the October 1994 issue of
Civil Society ... East and West

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The URL for this page is: http://solar.rtd.utk.edu/~ccsi/csew/94-10/econ-am.html
Last updated: October 8, 1996

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