Ohio Council for Economic Education Update - Spring, 2009

Len Simutis has been appointed Interim President of the Ohio Council on Economic Education. He previously served as Executive Director of the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse at Ohio State, and also served as Dean of the Graduate School and Research at Miami University.  He looks forward to working with OCSS in supporting social studies education in Ohio.

A memorial fund for Abeejean Kehler has been created by the OCEE Board with the Columbus Foundation. An online tribute to Kehler's accomplishments as well as information about contributing to the memorial fund can be found at www.ocee.org.

A second round of Teacher Academies on Financial Literacy will be offered this summer through OCEE's affiliated Centers and a third round of offerings including new course content will be available in 2010.  To see the schedule of 2009 Teacher Academies go to www.ocee.org/teachersAcademies.html

OCEE and its affiliated Centers will be working with the Ohio Department of Education on the revision of the social studies standards as well as the adoption of new content standards for K-12 financial literacy. A "Financial Literacy Implementation Committee Report" has been prepared by  by the Ohio Department of Education in cooperation with Ohio Treasurer of State Richard Cordray, the Ohio Council on Economic Education and other partners.  The Report provides  guidelines, options and procedures for schools and districts to use to comply with the legislative intent of Senate Bill 311 which requires instruction in financial literacy.  The Report is available at www.ocee.org/ocee/strategies.html

The eighth annual Economics Challenge, a contest for students in grades 9-12 that offers teams of three to four students the opportunity to engage in a series of tests, challenging their economic knowledge and their economic understanding, was held March 2, 2009 at the Villa Milano Conference Center in Columbus, with 19 teams from 9 schools.  For the fourth year in a row, the winning team in the Adam Smith division was from Strongsville High School. In the David Ricardo division, Lexington High School was the winning team.  The two winning teams participated in the Economics Challenges Regional competition in Baltimore, Md. on April 27, with Strongsville High School finishing 3rd and Lexington High School 4th in their respective divisions.