Stephen F. Austin State University’s School of Human Sciences is home to the Center for Economic Education, which is one of six centers in Texas designed to help train educators who teach students about economic education.
“Financial literacy is such an important area of concern,” said Dr. Nancy Shepherd, who serves as the center’s director and program coordinator for family and consumer sciences at SFA. “SFA is very focused on financial literacy, and it is part of our strategic plan.”
The center operates under the Texas Council on Economic Education. Its primary function is to provide training for teachers across the state. SFA’s center concentrates on serving teachers in Deep East Texas and the Beaumont and Huntsville areas.
During training sessions, Shepherd and other presenters demonstrate how to teach a specific financial topic. The center receives grants to sponsor the trainings, which sometimes funds support materials such as the current VE4.5 jump drive that has more than 1,400 lessons that apply to students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Lessons include economics, financial literacy and entrepreneurship courses. Presenters help teachers navigate the lessons and find additional resources to help them in their classrooms.
“We have some great teachers doing really great things, but they need more support and training,” Shepherd said. “They don’t feel comfortable with some of the concepts, so we are trying to provide as much training as we can.”
Shepherd will host a curriculum training session from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5, at SFA in the Culinary Café, Room 121, located in the Education Annex Building on campus.
The session will focus on understanding fiscal responsibility and utilize real-world situations that illustrate current fiscal issues such as the national debt, budget deficit, national security, Social Security and national policy issues. The training session costs $15. Space is available for the Monday training. To register online, visit www.economicstexas.org.
For more information, contact Shepherd at (936) 468-1413 or shepherd@sfasu.edu.
