The economic education partnership involving Eastern Kentucky University, Central Bank, Madison County Schools and the Kentucky Council on Economic Education has led to the development of a training program for Madison County teachers in K-5 grades called “Economics: Math in Real Life” and is now the recipient of a $24,650 Excellence in Economic Education Teacher Training grant.

The partnership was announced earlier this year. The grant, from the Council for Economic Education, is provided through the U.S. Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement.

Through the “Math in Real Life” program, teachers will receive professional development training in how to integrate economics into math in the elementary grades so they can help students apply math concepts in their daily decision making.

Beginning this week, professional development workshops will be conducted by EKU’s Cynthia Harter, Krista Althauser, and Lisa Saylor along with Tina Barrett from Madison County Schools. According to Harter, director of the EKU Center for Economic Education, the resources obtained through the partnership and the grant guarantee that teachers will receive curriculum, materials, literature books, and more along with the training. “Teachers should be able to take what is learned directly into their classrooms and teach it to their students.”

The team approach undertaken by EKU, Central Bank, Madison County Schools, and the Kentucky Council on Economic Education increases the resources available for the project, Harter said, and the grant provides funds to implement a testing program where teachers and students will be pretested and post-tested in order to gauge impacts on learning.

The grant also provides for follow-up workshops that will be held in January, when teachers will obtain more training and reflect on strengths and weaknesses associated with integrating economics into mathematics in order to increase student learning.