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The newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University March 3, 2008 | Vol. 37 No. 24
 
CSOS: Stock Investing Program Improves Academic Performance

By Mary Maushard
CSOS

Middle school students participating in a stock investing program that teaches them strategies for earning, saving and investing money outperformed other students in several key academic areas, according to researchers at the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins.

The seventh-graders who took part in the Stocks in the Future program scored 31 percent higher in reading, vocabulary and math than did students in a control group, and sixth-grade participants' scores were 18 percent higher in reading comprehension and math.

These results reflect the positive impact of the supplemental program, which was offered to 400 students in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., who were identified as needing incentives to improve school performance.

The scripted Stocks in the Future curriculum was developed at the Center for Social Organization of Schools. Under the terms of the program, students who attend school regularly and improve their grades earn "SIF Dollars" that enable them to buy real publicly traded stocks, which they receive when they graduate from high school and turn 18.

"The positive impact of the Stocks in the Future program is substantial," said Anne Swain of CSOS, who is also executive director of the program, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. "Stocks in the Future helps students improve their school performance in core academic areas of reading and math, while the incentive provides a needed 'excuse' to attend school."

Proven effective during a multiyear pilot, Stocks in the Future is ready to launch its program throughout the region, Swain said.

The initiative has received long-standing support from the Abell Foundation, Bernstein Family Foundation, Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Family Foundation, Eastern Savings Bank, Legg Mason, M&T Bank, Praxis Engineering, Provident Bank, Sun Trust Bank and the U.S. Educational Fund.

For more on the program, including study results, go to www.stocksinthefuture.org/live/index.htm.

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