Harold McGraw III & McGraw-Hill Increase Financial Literacy For Teachers & Students
The McGraw-Hill Companies recently hosted nearly 200 schoolteachers from all five boroughs of New York City, and across the country, for a professional development session designed to help them educate their students about important personal finance topics so they can make sensible money decisions as adults. McGraw-Hill also announced it is spearheading an ambitious new campaign with several nonprofit partners to help New Yorkers better manage their personal finances. With a major emphasis on supporting educators, the campaign expects to provide in-class training to 800 teachers, and by extension benefit up to 80,000 students this year alone.
Organized by Working in Support of Education, the “MoneyPOWER” conference was held at the McGraw-Hill building. The teachers in attendance heard from experts such as Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist for Standard & Poor’s Equity Research, and Jean Chatzky, award-winning financial journalist and author, and financial editor at NBC’s Today Show. Among the topics covered were varying methods of investing, insurance, and the most effective strategies for teaching personal finance to young people.
Harold McGraw III, chairman, president and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies, kicked off the event by welcoming the teachers, noting that the need for enhancing economic education has never been greater.
“Few things are as important to America’s economic competitiveness as our ability to provide a high-quality education to all of our citizens, and achieving financial literacy is a critical component of the 21st century skills needed to be successful today,” said McGraw. “That’s why today’s event is so important and why I am excited about the work we will be doing with our outstanding partners to help all New Yorkers achieve the promise of financial security and prosperity.”
The newly established campaign, “Financial Literacy Now: New York,” is a joint effort of The McGraw-Hill Companies, the Council for Economic Education, Literacy Partners Inc., the New York Public Library, Talking Fin Lit, and WISE. The campaign will leverage the expertise of McGraw-Hill and its non-profit partners to help New Yorkers learn more about basic economic principles, including savings and interest, as well as more complex concepts like mortgage terms and conditions and diversification in investing.
“Unfortunately, for many years our nation has treated financial literacy as an educational afterthought. With the potential pitfalls of today’s increasingly complex financial offerings and decisions facing consumers, it is more important than ever to reverse that trend,” said McGraw. “We must do a better job teaching basic economic principles to our children starting in the earliest grades.”
The campaign’s key professional development offerings for teachers include in-class training sessions led by business and economic experts, podcasts that offer information, resources and insights about incorporating personal finance into a variety of studies and that are expected to reach tens of thousands of educators, and a powerful suite of other online resources and tools.
Free workshops on personal finance matters are also planned through the New York Public Library that will be available to all New Yorkers.
Increasing financial literacy and economic empowerment have been long-standing initiatives of The McGraw-Hill Companies. Since 1997, the company has leveraged its mission to help people achieve their potential by supporting programs and partnering with non-profit organizations that help individuals gain the knowledge necessary to make wise savings, credit and spending decisions. The corporation has provided grants to and supported programs of the Council for Economic Education, the National Academy Foundation, JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, and the Securities Industry Association/Foundation for Investor Education, among many others. For instance, The McGraw-Hill Companies is the sole corporate supporter of the Securities Industry Association’s curriculum guide, “Math Behind the Market,” which is geared to help teachers provide real-world applications of math concepts using examples from The Stock Market Game. More than 4,000 teachers trained in workshops on Math Behind the Market are impacting an estimated 168,000 students nationwide. #
