The Student Enterprise Program (StEP) is our flagship effort. Based on principles of market economics, StEP engages students and teachers in the design and operation of their own functioning market economy as a creative way to teach everyday school lessons. Students form their own government; develop a variety of student-run businesses, buy and sell services in the school marketplace; hold jobs; earn, spend, save, and invest school currency.
Schools experience:
StEP changes schooling from what is often a passive experience to one that gives the student responsibility and opportunity to make choices. The core academic curriculum in StEP schools is taught through practical experiences. In StEP, students are given a sense of purpose in school, a job and a feeling of accomplishment.
To date, StEP has been implemented in schools across Southwestern Ohio engaging every ethnic and socio-economic group. For complete list of schools, click here. In these schools, math and reading scores, as well as student attendance rates and attitudes, have improved.
StEP is an investment in our future citizens. StEP emulates a world with a real possibility of success and empowers students to strive and achieve. Our goal is to expand the Student Enterprise Program (StEP) to all low-income, urban elementary schools in Cincinnati, an arena where interventions are needed to raise chronically low test scores and increase poor attendance rates. To learn how you can be a part of that effort, click here.
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