Page 4 - Year-Long Plan_Neat

Business Education began in the United States in 1635 when a Plymouth colony hired the first

teacher to teach reading, writing and the casting of accounts. Over two centuries later, Joseph Wharton

endowed the first collegiate school of business in 1881 at the University of Pennsylvania. Fast forward to

1917, the Smith-Hughes Act was passed which promoted vocational education programs in agriculture,

trade and industry. The act also provided funding for teacher’s salaries for these program areas. In 1963,

the Vocational Education Act passed and served as the first official piece of Federal Legislation that

specifically references Business Education. The National Business Education Association (NBEA)

Standards were establish for Teacher Excellence in 1983 and as a result, business education has

continued to grow and flourish in the United States.

With growth comes change. The NBEA currently maintains curriculum standards for 11 business

content areas. Accounting, business law, career development, communication, computation, economics

and personal finance, entrepreneurship, information technology, international business, management,

and marketing make up the NBEA curriculum. With federal legislation’s support of vocational education,

educational reform will continue to shape career and technical curriculum. Changes in student interests

and enrollment have also played a significant role in business education. Those changes along with

changes in the economy will continue to challenge business educators. Designing a curriculum model

that meets the demands of vocational and career education in the future will be imperative. Trends and

lifestyles have changed and it will be necessary to update the curriculum and use technology as a tool to

do so.

After reviewing the National and State Standards for Business Education, I think that it is

important to know this information because it is the basis for my content area. Like with any profession,

there is specific and imperative information that you need to be aware of and knowledgeable of, and

teaching is no exception. The standards are based on a vision and a set of competencies designed