Center for Economic Education

Welcome to the Center for Economic Education (CEE).  

The Center's mission is to raise the level of economic literacy in Alaska by promoting and improving the teaching about economics in schools throughout the state. CEE is guided by the National Voluntary Economics Content Standards developed by their affiliate, the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE), and the Foundation for Teaching Economics.  The Center for Economics Education also partners with the Alaska Council on Economic Education (ACEE).

What Does the Center Do?

The Center for Economic Education's primary focus is teacher training. The teacher, above all, is the single most important asset in any educational program. The Center and its partners engage in many activities to support economics  teaching.

• CEE offers teacher-training activities for teachers to increase their knowledge of basic economic concepts and to familiarize them with methods, strategies, and resource materials to teach economics.

• CEE consults with schools, educational agencies, and community groups for needs assessments, curriculum development, course content, resource materials, and teaching strategies.

• CEE develops curriculum materials to help teachers make economics relevant to the needs of their students.

To introduce and support economics curricula in the classroom, the Center:

• Sponsors courses in economics for teachers. Each year, in conjunction with the University of Alaska Anchorage, the Center provides professional development courses in economics and appropriate teaching techniques to over 300 teachers throughout Alaska.

• Produces and distributes economic education curriculum materials to Alaska schools. The Center's classroom materials include an economic comic book, Adventures in the Alaska Economy, and High School Lesson for teaching Financial and Economic Literacy used by hundreds of Alaska students each year.

• Provides schools with exciting, high quality economic education programs for all grade levels, including "Financial and Economic Literacy," "Teaching with Experimental Economics," and "The Stock Market Game."

• Sponsors an annual "Meaningful Economics Challenge" for fifth and sixth graders. This challenge is an economics version of a spelling bee but instead of spelling, teams of students answer economic questions, solve economic problems, design products, and develop marketing plans for their products. Over the past ten years, more than 3,000 Alaska students have participated in the challenge.

• Sponsors the Stock Market Game, an online simulation that allows upper-elementary and high school students to compete with teams from other schools by making "trades" on the New York and American Stock Exchanges using imaginary funds.

• Works with teachers and administrators throughout Alaska to implement and improve economic education by developing local standards in economic education and planning and sponsoring professional development opportunities for teachers.