SUMMER ACADEMY
Download Full Brochure (PDF)
Receive $500 Scholarship and Professional Development Credit
(Teams of four receive $2,000)
Please send a team of educators (a minimum of 3 persons are acceptable per school).
Your help is needed to help develop and implement Financial Literacy Education in our schools.
July 13-15, 2011 at St. John’s University’s Queens Campus
Dear Educators and School Leaders:
Most young people in our schools are not taught how to make informed financial decisions. Therefore, St. John’s University’s School of Education, The St. John’s University Tobin College of Business, and the
Teaching Financial Education Group are working to create a National Center for Teaching Financial Literacy. We invite you with your colleagues to send a team and collaborate with us as we develop ways to deliver
financial literacy content into our nation’s schools.
Our thinking is guided by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) 2009 National Survey Executive
Summary which concludes, “To make sound financial decisions, individuals need to be equipped not only with at least a rudimentary level of financial knowledge, but also with the skills to apply what they know to actual financial decision-making situations. As the survey data demonstrate, all too often, a gap exists between self-reported knowledge and real-world behavior.”
Our goal is to provide an infrastructure for relevant instruction to improve the understanding of financial concepts, services, and products aimed at expanding knowledge, application, and access. The Center will
function to: evaluate financial literacy content; develop strategies to integrate financial literacy concepts into existing curricula; promote strategies leading to thinking consumers; and produce measurable learning outcomes. The Center is planned to be a national organization that coordinates the delivery of services to universities, school districts and community stakeholders.
The Financial Literacy Education Summer Academy teams will develop:
• A knowledge base of financial literacy concepts.
• Models for content integration based on voluntary national standards and core competencies for financial literacy.
• Effective teaching strategies that lead to measurable learning outcomes.
• Local action plans, networks and next steps.
We appreciate you making a commitment to improve financial education in your schools. Together, we can frame a strategic approach to promoting youth and young adult financial capability. Through your participation with a team of teachers from your school or district, we can formulate programs to integrate financial literacy through a system of professional development experiences. Our efforts are supported by research and learning strategies that promote a systemic thinking process that transforms information into knowledge. In effect, our combined efforts will address the much-needed call to action to improve financial literacy in America.
Respectively,
Jerrold Ross, Ph.D., Dean, St. John’s University School of Education
Victoria Shoaf, Ph.D., Dean, The Peter J. Tobin College of Business at St. John’s University
Gerald Lauber, Ed.D., The Teaching Financial Education Group