The Economics of Staying in School®

The Economics of Staying in School® comprises several activities that help students discover the importance of an education to their decisions to enter the work force. They explore their personal skills and interests, various career opportunities, personal budgeting and the consequences of the decisions they make. They are encouraged to define what success means for them individually and to set goals to attain it.

The Economics of Staying in School® Activities

Our Nation examines how businesses operate in the United States and explores various economic issues that impact those businesses.

Activity One: Making Your Own Way

The consultant greets the students and describes his or her background, job, organization, and the role education has played in his or her life. The students then are introduced to the program through an activity that reveals the relationships among education, career options, and earnings. 

Key Learning Objectives  The students will...

• identify their personal interests

• summarize how education affects career options and earnings

• define success in personal terms

Activity Two: Playing With Success

The students play SUCCESS, a board game that illustrates the relationship between education and achieving personal goals. In the discussion following the game, the students explain the relationship between the number of success points earned and players' schooling and career options. 

Key Learning Objectives  The students will...

• describe the value of an education

• identify situations that cause students to drop out of school

• analyze the choices and opportunities available to help them achieve success

Activity Three: Living and Learning

The students are introduced to the important role education plays in the United States. By working as teams to read tables, design charts, and communicate critical data, they discover the financial costs and opportunity costs of education. 

Key Learning Objectives  The students will...

• describe how taxpayers invest in education

• interpret tables and design charts

• identify the opportunity costs and trade-offs involved in a decision to drop out of school

Activity Four: The Cost of Living

The students work in small groups to prepare monthly budgets. They refer to the jobs they selected in the first activity to determine their incomes, and they use the local newspapers to determine costs of housing and transportation. 

Key Learning Objectives  The students will...

• gather information from classified advertisements

• calculate take-home pay

• prepare a monthly budget

Activity Five: Knowing Yourself

The students discover their skills and aptitudes through a personal assessment. They match the results of the assessment with their career choices from Making Your Own Way. They will consider ways they can gain the skills they need for the work force. 

Key Learning Objectives  The students will

• analyze their personal skills and aptitudes

• assess their skills in terms of career choices

• evaluate how experiences at home, school, work, volunteer activities, etc. help them develop the skills they need for the work force.

Activity Six: Setting Goals

The students write definitions of success, then in small groups they identify the goals that would enable them to achieve success. 

Key Learning Objectives  The students will

• develop personal definitions of success

• discover the importance of setting goals to achieve success

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The Economics of Staying in School® enhances the students' learning of the following concepts and skills:

Concepts

• Benefit 

• Budgets 

• Careers 

• Choices 

• Cost

• Employment 

• Expenses

• Incentives 

• Income 

• Investment 

• Opportunity costs

• Productive resources 

• Skills 

• Success 

• Taxes

• Trade-offs 

• Work
  

Skills

• Analyzing information

• Budgeting 

• Critical thinking

• Decision making 

• Evaluating experiences

• Following directions 

• Gathering data

• Giving reports 

• Goal setting 

• Math computation

• Summarizing

• Teamwork
  

The Economics of Staying in School is a series of six activities and is recommended for students in the middle grades. Materials are packaged in a self-contained kit that includes detailed activity plans for the volunteer and workbooks for 35 students.

All JA programs have technology enhancements and are designed to support the skills and competencies outlined in the SCANS (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) report. These programs also augment the school-based, work-based, and connecting activities for communities with school-to-work initiatives.
  

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