Edward R. Murrow Economics Teacher Wins Prestigious National Award

Some parents have struggled just to get teenagers to open a bank account. But one Edward R. Murrow High School teacher has found a way to use personal finance to bait his students into discussions about larger economic issues. And his efforts have been recognized with a prestigious national award.

AP macroeconomics teacher Matthew Gherman received the The Council for Economic Education’s Alfred P. Sloan Teaching Champion Award for his approach to explaining global finance. In the beginning of October, he will share his work with other educators at a Florida conference and will be formally presented with the award at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan later that month.

Gherman said he likes to introduce a lesson by showing students how their money works within the larger economy. How are deposits in their savings accounts used by banks to make loans? How does credit card debt relate to national debt?

“A lot of AP economics can be cut and dry. This adds a little more flavor to it,” he said. “It really gets the kids to bite into the lesson.”

Gherman said his method has had great success. Over the last two years, he said 80 percent of his students passed the AP macroeconomics exam, which earns them three college credits. In 2014, the national pass rate was 56 percent, according to a paper from the College Board Social Studies Academic Advisory Committee.

Gherman is also the school’s personal finance coordinator and administers the W!se Foundation’s financial literacy exam. And over the past two years, Gherman has worked with other teachers to extend the exam to Murrow’s special needs students. Gherman said he’s unaware of any other high school working on a similar effort.

“I work with the instructional support teachers to modify the material to break it down to help students with different learning strategies and different learning curves,” he said. “So this way, special needs students have a shot at being certified in financial literacy.”

Gherman, who studied history at Brooklyn College for both his bachelors and masters degrees, said he fell into the world of finance when he landed his first teaching job at James Madison High School, where he was assigned to the honors and AP economics course.

“Ironically, I focused on history throughout all of college and then I ended up teaching economics,” he joked. “A lot of what I teach came from teaching myself. I got all the textbooks. I got the review books. I wanted to make sure I was as up to date as possible.”

Budget cuts at James Madison later forced Gherman to move to Murrow.

Gherman is one of three teachers in the Tri-State to receive this year’s Alfred P. Sloan Teaching Champion Award. He was nominated for the award by the school’s Assistant Principal Ryan Mills. The winners receive a $5,000 prize, and their schools get $2,500 to support financial education.

“It’s a really great recognition,” Gherman said. “Teaching is a tough job. We come in there and try to do our best and it’s pretty cool to be recognized like this.”