"Our responsibility as educators and business leaders is to ensure that Arizona students understand the economy in which they will function and that they will have the economic, financial, math and analytical skills to make informed decisions everyday on the job, in their careers, in their personal life, and as citizens."

~ Elizabeth Volard, President

Our Mission

Our mission is to help Arizona students develop economic ways of thinking and problem solving that they can use in their lives as knowledgeable consumers, savers and investors, productive members of the workforce, responsible citizens, and informed participants in a global economy.

To Accomplish the Mission

The Council accomplishes the mission through a six part systemic strategy that maximizes the impact and reach of its programs across Arizona by

• Helping develop the Arizona Economics Standard K-12
• Helping establish the new economics course requirement for high school graduation
• Providing professional development, training and courses for teachers
• Developing standards-based curriculum
• Developing and providing field-tested classroom materials
• Assessing and evaluating the results

Our Program and Delivery System for Arizona Teachers

• University graduate credit economics courses
• College on-line economics courses
• Standards-based Workshops
• University-based Offices for Economic Education
• Cadre of Master Economics Teacher Trainers
• Mathematics and Economics Teacher Trainers
• Financial Fitness for Life Teacher Trainers
• Internet, Distance Learning, Webinars, and Podcasts
• ACEE Website with links to standards-based classroom lessons
• Arizona Society of Economics Teachers (ASET)

The Impact

The Arizona Council on Economic Education (ACEE) provided courses, professional development, workshops and programs in 2008 for over 2,100 teachers reaching approximately 315,000 students. Our economics programs and classroom materials are based on solid academic economic standards and reinforce mathematics, science, language arts, and technology standards.

Why Are We Needed?

The demand for Arizona Council workshops, courses, on-line programs and classroom materials has never been greater. There are three major reasons for this increase:

1. The Economy
   People are concerned about how economic issues affect their everyday life including: the current financial crisis, mortgage foreclosures, credit crunch in the traditional mortgage market, job security, cost of gas and food, credit card debt, Federal Reserve actions, the stock market, health insurance, environmental issues, international trade, the value of the dollar, the balance of payments, taxes. The Council’s curricula and classroom materials cover the fundamental economic content and reasoning skills to understand current and future economic issues and conditions.
2. Arizona Economics Standard for K-12
   The Arizona K-12 Standard in Economics (the fifth strand in the Arizona Social Studies Standard Articulated by Grade Level K-12) is required to be taught. Teachers need content knowledge and classroom materials to teach the academic standards. The Economics Standard includes economic foundations, microeconomics, macroeconomics, global economics and personal finance concepts and student performance objectives. Council workshops and classroom materials are designed to prepare teachers to teach the K-12 Standard in Economics reinforce the Mathematics and Language Arts Standard at K-8 grade levels. Curriculum supervisors and teachers are requesting workshops and teaching materials correlated with the Standard.
3. Economics Course Required for High School Graduation
   In December 2007, the Arizona Board of Education approved a high school economics graduation requirement effective beginning for the freshman class of 2009 who will graduate in 2012. Teachers are required to acquire “Highly Qualified” status to teach high school academic subjects. They are requesting help from the Arizona Council on Economic Education. The Arizona Council’s university-based Offices for Economic Education help teachers become proficient in economics through completing eight university credit economics courses, as well as, participating in Arizona Council’s on-going series of economics content workshops statewide.

Strategic Statewide Outreach

The Council’s Strategic Program Plan is to continue to expand outreach and services to K-12 teachers in public, charter, and private schools in all 15 counties across Arizona. Workshops, programs, and courses are being expanded to prepare teachers and their students to achieve the K-12 Arizona Economics Standard.. Various economics workshops and classroom materials focus on reinforcing the K-12 academic Standards in Mathematics, Reading, Language Arts, Science (Environmental Science), U.S. History, Government, Geography, Entrepreneurship, Business and Technology.

The Arizona Council on Economic Education is making a difference in Arizona education. We teach economic reasoning, analytical skills, and economic principles to prepare students to become knowledgeable citizens.