K-6 Financial and Economic Education Delivery

Leader: James Dunn

What: Entrepreneurship Nevada's K-12 Financial and Economic Literacy Planning Project identified the Junior Achievement curriculum as the best way to deliver financial and economic education to K-6 students in Northern Nevada. This curriculum will expose K-6 students to all of the content necessary for the student to meet the financial literacy standards of SB317, recently passed by the Nevada legislature, and the content necessary to meet the state economic literacy standards introduced in the late 1990s. The problem is, to reach the roughly 33,000 K-6 students in 1,566 elementary classes using the Junior Achievement model, an estimated 1,566 trained volunteers will be required and roughly $200,000 for materials and for Junior Achievement staff. Presently, Northern Nevada Junior Achievement has roughly 200 volunteers for all of K-12, and raises money commensurate to that level of activity.

Who: Project leader: James Dunn Initial Team: James Dunn, Bill Heitman, Fred Jakolot, Yiwen Zhang Project Secretary: Bill Heitman

How: Coordinating with Washoe County School District (WCSD), Entrepreneurship Nevada will work with Junior Achievement to deliver the Junior Achievement curriculum to each of the 1,566 K-6 classrooms in a manner that meets the financial and economic literacy standards to which the WCSD is held accountable. A marketing plan for K-6 teachers will be produced, that includes brief presentation of the Junior Achievement program, a simple description of how the program meets the state financial and economic literacy standards, and short testimonials about the program’s effectiveness from other teachers and student participants. Meetings will be held with school district administrators to develop trust and mutual buy-in. One recruitment model will involve the same person paying for the materials for one class and also teaching the class. A second recruitment model will involve matching those who do not have time to teach but are willing to contribute with college students who do not have money to contribute. Multiple fundraisers will be developed to raise funds for staff and materials. To raise volunteers, coordinating recruiters will be recruited and place in for-profit and non-profit service organizations within the community.

When: During by the end of August 2010, the plan for executing this project will be completed and meetings with WCSD administers will be held to develop mutual trust and buy-in. By the end of May 2011, the goal is to reach 750 of the K-6 classrooms with the Junior Achievement program. By the end of May 2011, the goal is to reach all 1,566 of the K-6 classrooms.

Metrics: The primary measure of success will be the number of K-6 classrooms served. Intermediate success measures will be the number of volunteers recruited and the amount of funds raised.

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