Program Updates

In August 2021, MCEE convened a panel of educators and coaches from across Minnesota to evaluate the Economics Challenge program for accessibility, rigor, and relevance in the classroom. As a result of those discussions, the Economics Challenge program underwent revisions to promote opportunities for all students to participate, encourage greater competitiveness, and better integrate critical-thinking skills into the program and classroom.

The 2022 program year was the first year to include these new updates, with many teachers responding favorably to the changes which impacted students' ability to compete multiple times, introduced a new system for quiz bowl scoring, and created a case study component for the 2023 competition.

Spring 2022 brought about new changes to a long-standing MCEE program serving students in remedial summer classes. The Mathematics & Economics program has, for the past 11 years, supported elementary school students in Saint Paul with lessons focused on building numeracy, critical-thinking, and mathematic skill with integrated economics content and concepts. This year, MCEE made updates to the program to better reflect the cultural realities and contexts of many students participating in the classes, as well as created new  content for kindergarten and first grade.

Additionally, this past year saw the program piloted in new districts and in new languages. For the first time, teachers were trained to deliver lessons and content in Spanish for a language-immersion class.