The Stock Market Game™
SIFMA Foundation’s The Stock Market Game™ (SMG) is an online educational activity for students that has served more than 12 million young people in grades 4-12 since its inception in 1977. SMG introduces students to the financial markets with its integrated curriculum as they learn math, economics and the importance of long-term saving and investing. Teams of 3-5 participants invest a hypothetical $100,000 in real stocks, bonds and mutual funds, learning cooperation, communication and leadership as they manage their portfolio.
Designed by teachers and reviewed for accuracy by industry experts at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), SMG’s curriculum features the following teacher tools:
Lessons that support the teaching of math, social studies, business, economics, and language arts- Specific lessons in math.
- Weekly newsletter for teachers that ties current events to the program
- In-depth newsletters for students
- Use of online research, helping students stay current on financial, economic and world events
- Curriculum correlations to standards in all 50 states
- InvestWrite national essay contest as a culminating activity
In August 2009, Learning Point Associates, a leading educational research firm, completed a two-year study funded by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to test the efficacy of SMG. The findings showed that SMG substantially improves student math scores on standardized tests and improves student investor knowledge. The study also showed that teachers were more likely to engage in financial planning practices as a result of teaching SMG.
Additionally, the first Nation’s Report Card on Economics, released in 2007, found that students participating in a stock market game scored a statistically significant higher score on standardized tests than students who had not participated. Lastly, in six consecutive reports over a 12 year period, the biannual survey by the Jump$tart Coalition for Financial Literacy also found that students that participated in a stock market game score higher on the Jump$tart financial literacy survey than students that did not participate.
Teachers use SMG because it works. Students have fun, they learn at the same time and the program is easy to integrate within a teacher’s subject area. SIFMA member firms and the SIFMA Foundation are dedicated to ensuring that people of all ages and backgrounds have access to the knowledge and expertise of industry professionals, striving together toward a more fully informed investing public.
To view teacher/student testimony about how SMG improves learning in the classroom visit: www.stockmarketgame.org
