Common Cents

A prestigious new affiliation propels the Tennessee Council on Economic and Free Enterprise Education toward fulfilling Jennings A. Jones’ dream

by Patsy B. Weiler

A chance sighting of a Sunday newspaper advertisement about The Stock Market Game more than 40 years ago made Jennings A. Jones wonder how he could help take the program to Tennessee classrooms.

The Murfreesboro businessman and namesake of the MTSU Jones College of Business soon approached the Economics Department’s nascent Center for Economic Education in 1977 as the place to invest his idea. His passion and vision of economic education for Tennessee students helped launch the growth of the center, and today, The Stock Market Game is one of the main elements among its many successful components.

Comprehensive, challenging, and fun, the game is a real-world program that helps participants of all ages understand financial and investment concepts as teams manage their own portfolios. Since its beginning, the center’s mission has been to equip Pre-K–12 schools with the tools and knowledge of economics and personal finance to learn how to make better decisions and choices for themselves, their families, and communities.

From the start, Jennings A. and Rebecca Jones “took a strong interest in the center as a whole, and the Jones Foundation has continued to be a regular supporter—both financially and as a cheerleading team—of the work done at the center,” said Maria Edlin King, the center’s new director.

A YEAR OF CHANGE

2020 became a key year as the center pivoted to a new name, the Tennessee Council on Economic and Free Enterprise Education at MTSU, allowing for expansion; got a new director in King; and received the 2019–20 Albert Beekhuis Award. Named after a lifelong proponent of economic literacy, the national award included a $1,000 honorarium from the New York-based Council for Economic Education (CEE).

King, an Economics faculty member who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at MTSU, had worked for 19 years as assistant director of the center. Within six months of becoming director, she was ready to deposit her own ideas. King applied for and received the state council designation from the CEE national governance organization.

“The move to being the state council affords us the opportunity to sponsor and implement two additional competitions—the National Personal Finance Challenge and National Economics Challenge,” King said. “It expands our role as an advisory ‘council’ on standards, classroom implementation, and more— and, quite frankly, it makes our Tennessee Council more visible to potential funding opportunities that ultimately will lead to more and better branding."

Shining as bright as a new coin on the funding radar is important because the Tennessee Council works with many Title I schools that serve the needs of low-income students. Determined to bring the offerings of the local council to all children, King continually seeks grants to cover the costs of materials, programming, and computer access for an often-underserved population.

TEACHING THE TEACHERS

All 95 Tennessee counties “are in our scope with our transition to the state council,” King said. From July 2019 to June 2020, which included three-plus months when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down many MTSU on-campus operations, the center conducted 20 professional development programs, reaching 812 teachers.

Partners included the Nashville branch of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, the Foundation for Economic Education, the Foundation for Teaching Economics, the American Institute for Economic Research, and the Tennessee Jump$tart Coalition.

King, who also teaches macroeconomics classes at MTSU, knows the topic of economics can be intimidating. She uses familiar things such as Cinderella, coffee beans, chocolate candy, fake pearls, Halloween pet costumes, and Dollar Store merchandise to bring familiarity, interest, and understanding to the lessons she presents.

Maria Edlin King, new director of MTSU’s renamed Tennessee Council on Economic and Free Enterprise Education

“The beauty of teaching a teacher is that they go back to their classroom and engage with 200 to 300 students every year. It’s the gift that keeps on giving,” King said. “I provide individualized assistance with lessons for teachers, approaching economic and personal finance concepts that might not be something with which they are familiar. There is a big difference between ‘knowing something’ and ‘teaching something.’ I try to help bridge that gap.”

Since its beginning, the center's mission has been to equip Pre-K–12 schools with the tools and knowledge of economics and personal finance.

AFFILIATION AFFIRMATION

Given annually, the prestigious Beekhuis Award is presented to an affiliated Center for Economic Education for outstanding performance in working with teachers and exhibiting excellence in delivery of high-quality programs and outreach to its community.

“Maria, through the center, diligently maintained operations with an eye toward the future, and she has since established the Tennessee Council,” said Kevin Gotchet, director of programs at the national CEE. “In recognition of her committed efforts to provide professional development for K–12 teachers, advocate for education standards, and forge partnerships, the council was pleased to present the Tennessee Council on Economic and Free Enterprise Education at MTSU with the 2020 award.”

There was no directive on how to utilize the award, but King said the honorarium “is being used to establish an award recognizing excellence in economic or personal finance education for K–12 teachers. One of the great privileges I’ve had in my time at the Tennessee Council on Economic and Free Enterprise Education has been to work with teachers who are fully engaged in their students’ education and actively invested in their own ongoing professional development.”

Dean David Urban calls the award “a tremendous honor for MTSU, Jones College, and the Tennessee Council on Economic and Free Enterprise Education at MTSU.

“This recognition by the Council for Economic Education in New York City is a tremendous boost to our efforts in helping economic educators across Tennessee,” Urban added. “It validates the importance of our work, which ultimately expands economic literacy among thousands of students every year. Economic literacy is a key element of our Jones College emphasis on having a positive impact—not just on business, but on society.”

When COVID-19 arrived, King had to withdraw from her usual approach to reaching educators. Hardly a person who is short of ideas, she relied on a diversified approach using technology.

“We utilized several formats of communication— primarily Zoom, but also WebEx, Microsoft Teams, and GoToMeeting,” King said. “We will definitely continue to use them. They provided flexibility for teachers who are far away and have other responsibilities that could prohibit them from attending face to face.”

Our work expands economic literacy among thousands of students every year.

PRESENT AND FUTURE SUCCESS

The new director has many long-term goals accruing in her mind.

“I want to grow the size of the academic competitions. One of my dreams is hosting an economics fair—much like a Google Science Fair, but focusing on young people’s ideas for helping their communities grow,” King said. “These innovations could help end local pockets of poverty in Tennessee and address global economic issues such as free trade, poverty, and more.”

Beyond the numbers and programs, King emphasized that putting a human face on how the center serves the community is paramount.

She still smiles about the recent VOTE curriculum the center helped develop with Michele Slusher, a kindergarten teacher at Mitchell-Neilson Primary School in Murfreesboro. The young students voted for their favorite cookies—Oreos, Chips Ahoy, or Animal Crackers—with the perennial favorite black-and-white sandwich cookie coming out a clear winner.

“It was so much fun!” King said. “By utilizing cookies, these young minds were introduced to the concept that we pick the people that make fiscal policy in our country when we vote, without the project becoming political. The students made ballot boxes, created a stump speech, and learned to write a persuasive sentence on why others should vote for their cookie.”

Another success story comes from Cynthia Neal, a teacher of talented and gifted students in Chattanooga, about a young man she was teaching at Chattanooga Preparatory School, an all-boys public charter school, who was not attending virtual classes. The Stock Market Game changed that.

“My formerly disengaged young man has shown up for every class! Previously, I had to send him a ton of messages and reminders, and he still didn’t attend,” Neal said. “Because we were in a virtual setting, there was nothing I could really do to make him come. Now, he logs in every time without me having to hunt him down. In addition, he has downloaded an app on his phone and has purchased a small amount of his own stock. He shares his progress with us in class.”

Her other students enjoyed the stock market simulation as well.

“I enjoy listening in on their small breakout room sessions as they hammer out what they should do,” Neal wrote to King. “It makes me smile. Thank you again for walking me through this curriculum. I was a bit afraid of the program at first because I thought it would be too much to manage, but communicating with you helped change my mind. Now I am so glad that we did it!”

More than four decades later, there is little doubt Jones would be pleased as his interest in economic education has compounded nicely, returning tremendous dividends in the lives of Tennessee students.