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The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has a long history of providing economic and financial information to the public that continues today, although the format, delivery, and amount of information have changed over the years. Today, the St. Louis Fed provides Web-based data and information services, including FRED® and FRASER®, and publications, online courses, videos, podcasts, and much more that cover a wide array of economic topics. All these materials provide opportunities to engage students and enhance instruction in college classrooms.

The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States. The system includes 12 Federal Reserve Banks (and their associated branches) located throughout the country, with oversight by the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. The diverse structure is designed to ensure that the interests of Main Street are represented along with those of Washington, D.C., and Wall Street. In addition to fulfilling its responsibilities to supervise and regulate banks, support the payment system, provide banking services to the federal government, and conduct monetary policy, the Federal Reserve System provides support for financial literacy. This support includes education programs, online resources, audiovisual materials and print materials. These programs, audiovisual materials, and most print materials are free. In addition, many of the Reserve Banks have museums or exhibits that are available for classroom visits. This article highlights some of the materials available.

In 1890, the United States government had no agency empowered to control the overall supply of money. Fifty years later, it had a full set of monetary institutions, including a central bank whose structure is much the same today. Further, it had enough experience to know both the promise and the pitfalls of monetary control. How did the nation's monetary institutions change so much? History books make the progression from the 1890s debates and early twentieth century crises look inevitable. Yet because there is little economic content, the textbooks do not explain monetary history within a contextual framework that includes choices, costs, and incentives. As in other areas, textbooks underplay the economic way of thinking. This article outlines the macroeconomic understandings required to help students navigate the complexities of a key period in American monetary history. We show how economic reasoning illuminates three episodes from that period--the hard currency debate of the 1890s, the panic of 1907, and the Great Depression of the 1930s.

At an early age, young children often wonder why they must go to school. They may see the connection between practice and their ability to kick a soccer ball or to play a musical instrument, but seldom know the answer to the question, "Why is school important?" Elementary teachers can give young children the opportunity to learn that reading, writing, math, and other skills contribute to their human capital, and improving their human capital will help them reach their goals, now and as adults. "Human capital" is defined as the combination of knowledge, skills and abilities. personal characteristics, and experience a person has. Teachers can help students understand that they can improve their human capital through education, hard work, and experience. Many lessons, built around works of fiction and nonfiction, exist that address the important concept of human capital. In this article, the authors detail one such lesson, that uses a picture book, "Morris Goes to School" by Bernard Wiseman, to show children that success does not come without perseverance, practice, education, and hard work. The lesson addresses the four dimensions of the C3 Framework: (1) Developing questions and planning inquiries; (2) Applying disciplinary concepts and tools; (3) Evaluating sources and using evidence; and (4) Communicating conclusions and taking informed action. It also integrates skills from the Common Core Standards--reading, writing, language, and listening and speaking--to help students answer the lesson's compelling question, "How do people improve their human capital?"

Central banking in the United States has a long and controversial history dating back to the earliest days of the republic. One of the most widely presented arguments against a central bank has been that the U.S. Constitution does not expressly grant the federal government power to charter a bank. Recently, this issue has received new scrutiny in response to the actions taken by the Federal Reserve System to address the financial crisis of 2007-09: lending more than $1.5 trillion to financial institutions, buying $1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed securities to stabilize the economy, and implementing other nontraditional forms of monetary policy. The authors briefly examine the early days of central banking in the United States and use that discussion as a basis to understand the Fed today, especially the characteristics of political independence, accountability, and constitutionality. (Contains 7 notes and 4 online resources.)

In the fall of 2008, the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and St. Louis began a systematic evaluation of their economic and personal finance educational outreach programs. Both banks were interested in developing tools to assess the success of their existing economic and financial education programs. However, before any assessment could begin, a fundamental question had to be addressed: What do the banks want educators and students to know? To answer this question, the assessment team decided to develop a set of standards to guide the banks' programs. The group quickly realized that more than one set of standards were necessary to guide all of the banks' programs, which tend to fall into one of three categories: (1) the Federal Reserve System; (2) personal finance; and (3) general economics. Two new sets of education standards were developed. One covers the banks' programs about the Federal Reserve System, and the other covers personal finance. These newly created educational standards can guide teachers in developing citizens who are knowledgeable about the Fed and its role in financial system and market economy. This article introduces the "Educational Standards for Teaching about the Federal Reserve System"--the first attempt to develop standards outlining the knowledge that teachers and students need in order to understand the Federal Reserve. "The Educational Standards for Teaching about the Federal Reserve System" consists of 15 statements. To organize the standards, the 15 statements are grouped into seven broad areas. The authors briefly describe and discuss these seven areas. (Contains 10 notes.)

Data and primary source documents are important for understanding past and current events. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has committed itself to the collection and illumination of economic data and historical information for classroom teachers and researchers. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis provides a number of services--including FRED, GeoFRED, and FRASER--to increase that understanding. In the early 1990s, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis began offering its small collection of economic data to the public through a dial-up service. Now, Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) is a website that includes over 24,000 data series. Students will increase their understanding of past and current events through the FRED website, where they can view and download original maps, charts, tables, graphs, and raw data. Most economists and many educators are comfortable with data in table and graph form, but often students are not. An excellent option in such cases is GeoFRED[TM]. GeoFRED, another part of the St. Louis Fed's data service, can be accessed from the top menu on the FRED home page (or at http://geofred.stlouisfed.org/). GeoFRED is a datamapping tool that allows students to create thematic maps based on a particular set of data. Another service that St. Louis Fed provides is FRASER or the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/). FRASER includes source material from the eighteenth century to the present on economics, finance, and banking. (Contains 2 figures and 1 note.)

Today's young students, when they grow to be adults, will have to make decisions the consequences of which will impact their lives and the lives of others. As consumers, they will need to understand that they can't have everything they want. They will have to make spending, savings, and investing decisions that benefit their own families over the long term. Citizens must grapple with understanding the economic policy decisions of Congress, the President, and the Federal Reserve, and how these policies impact the lives of consumers, producers, and investors--and the health of the economy itself. Research in economic education shows that elementary students can and do learn economics when their teachers are knowledgeable and have high-quality economic education materials on hand. The Federal Reserve, commonly referred to as the "Fed," has expertise through its economists and its economic educators to provide content programs, publications, and curricular materials for teachers to use to help elementary students develop economic literacy. This article presents economics and children's literature lessons as well as teaching resources from the Federal Reserve Banks that can be used to help students better understand their economic world. (Contains 10 notes.)

In "Proposed National Standards for Financial Literacy: What's In? What's Out?", Maier, Figart, and Nelson pose the question: "How should educators use the standards?" In answering that question, they suggest a number of issues and topics that they believe should be taught along with the "National Standards for Financial Literacy." Among the most daunting challenges faced by standards writers in any discipline is the delineation of boundaries to define the breadth and scope of the discipline. The question of "What should be in and what should be out?" in these standards loomed large throughout the nearly two years of work on them. In this article, the authors provide additional explanations about the rationale for these standards and the process they used to develop them. They also describe how these standards can be used by educators nationwide.

Explains that authentic teaching and assessment enable students to utilize their prior knowledge, recent learning, and critical thinking and problem-solving skills in real-world contexts. Describes examples of authentic teaching and assessment that use the "Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics" as a framework for economics education in the elementary grades. (CMK)

The article examines the history, structure and the function of the U.S. Federal Reserve System. Political debates about the constitutionality, political independence and accountability of the Federal Reserve System are outlined. The process of central banking under the U.S. Constitution is outlined.