ACRE Workshop Alum Debby Mauldin Receives Gold Star Teacher Award

By Caleb Taylor

Congratulations to Vilonia High School business teacher Debby Mauldin!

Mauldin, a Vilonia High School business teacher and ACRE Professional Development Workshop alumna, received the 2018-2019 W!SE Gold Star Teacher Award on Thursday, October 10.

To be considered for the Gold Star Award, a teacher must achieve a 93% pass rate in at least one of their classes on either the Fall 2018 or Spring 2019 W!SE Financial Literacy Certification Test. 

The Financial Literacy Certification program helps high school students graduate as financially capable young adults. Participating high schools teach a course or unit on personal finance and then administer their national, standardized Financial Literacy Certification Test.

W!se (Working In Support of Education) is an educational nonprofit that provides financial education, college and career readiness programs, and services to students, educators and at-risk adults. W!se helps people, especially the underserved, to improve personal financial habits such as saving, budgeting and setting financial goals. W!SE’s Certification in Personal Finance program was developed in part by UCA Professor of Finance Dr. Mike Casey and originally launched at UCA. Since then, the testing program has been implemented in 35 other states.

Maudlin attended ACRE’s first ever professional development workshops for social science educators held at UCA last year. She and 15 other teachers heard lectures led by ACRE faculty and staff.

At Teaching Free Enterprise in Arkansas workshops, teachers hear lectures on a variety of economic topics, participate in Q&A sessions with experts in the field, and take home new lesson plans and activity kits for their classes. These full-day workshops are tailored to 9th – 12th grade social science teachers throughout the state.

To find out more information about our teacher professional development workshops go here.