Standards for Stock Market Price History

Standard: 4

Name: Incentives

• 4-12: Students will understand that: People usually respond predictably to positive and negative incentives.
• 4-12: Students will be able to use this knowledge to: Identify incentives that affect people's behavior and explain how incentives affect their own behavior.

Standard: 13

Name: Income

In a market economy, wages and salaries the prices of labor services are determined just as other prices are, by the interaction of buyers and sellers. The buyers of labor services are employers. They are willing to pay higher wages and salaries to those employees who can produce more or better goods or services in a given amount of time. Students who understand this will appreciate the value of the skills they can acquire by completing high school, and perhaps college or a vocational training program. Understanding the forces affecting wages and other sources of income will be increasingly important in the future, when workers may change employers and careers more often than in the past. Regardless of the occupations or industries in which today's students eventually work, they are likely to find that they will have to continue their education and training to maintain or increase their earnings.

• 4-12: Students will understand that: Income for most people is determined by the market value of the productive resources they sell. What workers earn primarily depends on the market value of what they produce.
• 4-12: Students will be able to use this knowledge to: Predict future earnings based on their current plans for education, training, and career options.

Standard: 1

Name: Scarcity

Students face many choices every day. Is watching TV the best use of their time? Is working at a fast-food restaurant better than the best alternative job or some other use of their time? Identifying and systematically comparing alternatives enables people to make more informed decisions and to avoid unforeseen consequences of choices they or others make. Some students believe that they can have all the goods and services they want from their family or from the government because goods provided by family or by governments are free. But this view is mistaken. Resources have alternative uses, even if parents or governments own them. For example, if a city uses land to build a football stadium, the best alternative use of that land must be given up. If additional funds are budgeted for police patrols, less money is available to hire more teachers. Explicitly comparing the value of alternative opportunities that are sacrificed in any choice enables citizens and their political representatives to weigh the alternatives in order to make better economic decisions. This analysis also makes people aware of the consequences of their actions for themselves and others, and leads to a heightened sense of responsibility and accountability.

• 4-12: Students will understand that: Productive resources are limited. Therefore, people cannot have all the goods and services they want; as a result, they must choose some things and give up others.
• 4-12: Students will be able to use this knowledge to: Identify what they gain and what they give up when they make choices.

Name: Managing Credit

Standard: 5

• Students will understand that: Credit allows people to purchase and enjoy goods and services today, while agreeing to pay for them in the future, usually with interest. There are many choices for borrowing money, and lenders charge higher interest and fees for riskier loans or riskier borrowers. Lenders evaluate creditworthiness of a borrower based on the type of credit, past credit history, and expected ability to repay the loan in the future. Credit reports compile information on a person’s credit history, and lenders use credit scores to assess a potential borrower’s creditworthiness. A low credit score can result in a lender denying credit to someone they perceive as having a low level of creditworthiness. Common types of credit include credit cards, auto loans, home mortgage loans, and student loans. The cost of post-secondary education can be financed through a combination of grants, scholarships, work-study, savings, and federal or private student loans.

Name: Saving

Standard: 3

• Students will understand that: People who have sufficient income can choose to save some of it for future uses such as emergencies or later purchases. Savings decisions depend on individual preferences and circumstances. Funds needed for transactions, bill-paying, or purchases, are commonly held in federally insured checking or savings accounts at financial institutions because these accounts offer easy access to their money and low risk. Interest rates, fees, and other account features vary by type of account and between financial institutions, with higher rates resulting in greater compound interest earned by savers.