A bear market isn't holding back the expansion of
Stocks in the Future, an innovative financial
literacy program that teaches students about investing
while bolstering attendance and class
participation.
This fall, the Johns Hopkins-based program is
realizing an 87 percent growth in the number of
middle school-aged participants, expanding to 25 classes in
14 schools in Baltimore City, Baltimore and
Carroll counties and the District of Columbia. Eleven of
the schools are in Baltimore City, and one each
in the other jurisdictions. The program will reach 750
students in grades 6, 7 and 8, up from about
400 last year. Seven schools are new to the program.
Developed at Johns Hopkins' Center for Social
Organization of Schools, Stocks in the Future
offers a scripted curriculum that teaches strategies for
earning, saving and investing money, as well
as reinforcing academic fundamentals. By attending school
regularly and improving their grades,
students earn "SIF Dollars" that enable them to buy
publicly traded stocks, which they receive when
they graduate from high school and turn 18. A student can
earn as much as $80 a year to invest.
SIF board member Tedd Alexander, managing partner of
Credo Capital Management in
Baltimore, says he knows from personal experience that
teaching youngsters about the stock market
can help prepare them for the future.
"I bought my first stock at the age of 13, and that
was the catalyst to my becoming an
investment manager," Alexander said. "SIF can offer similar
inspirations. It provides critical building
blocks toward financial literacy that will benefit students
throughout their lives, regardless of the
careers they ultimately pursue."
At its creation, the three-year program targeted
students who needed extra incentives to
attend school and work hard, and was originally offered to
just one class in each grade. This fall,
Stocks in the Future will be taught to all sixth-graders in
several schools. Classes are taught by staff
teachers and take place once a week.
Johns Hopkins' evaluations of the program show that it
can reverse a tendency toward poor
attendance, with Stocks in the Future students attending
school 10 more days than those in control
groups. Seventh-graders who took part in the 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 mathematics.
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