May 31, 2012

Dear Colleagues:

I am writing to inform you that we will discontinue our participation in the IES program on June 30, 2013. After six successful years of providing the program throughout the 12th District and careful deliberations, we determined it was time to shift our educational focus and programming. The IES program presented us with a tremendous opportunity to meet our education mission of providing meaningful learning experiences about economics, the U. S. economy, and the Federal Reserve. During the past six years, over 115,000 students and approximately 600 teachers participated in the IES program.

The program also engendered broad and enthusiastic support from Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF) management, our education staff, and Bank employees who volunteered at regional events. We are extremely grateful to teachers like you who contributed to the program’s success. As we shift into new program areas, our commitment to providing educators with innovative and high quality resources and materials will continue.

What does this mean?

As you may know, we acquired the rights to distribute the IES program through a collaborative licensing agreement with the Idaho Council on Economic Education (ICEE). The original license was set to expire next month. We recently concluded a limited extension of the license that allows us to provide you with support and materials for an additional twelve months. At the conclusion of the extension on June 30, 2013, we will fully exit the program. FRBSF will discontinue the following activities as of July 1, 2012:

• IES teacher trainings
  
  
• IES regional events

FRBSF will continue to support the following activities through June 30, 2013:

• Distribution of IES materials to teachers at no charge, including Teacher Handbooks, Player’s
  Guides, and Mini-Summit Kits, upon request
  
  
• Availability of the IES website and online IES application

Instructional and classroom support for IES mini-summits will be available upon request

How can you continue with the IES program?

The Idaho Council on Economic Education (ICEE) has been tremendously successful in implementing the IES program across the United States and abroad. Interested teachers and schools may continue the IES program under the ICEE umbrella. Over the next several months, ICEE will begin efforts to pursue teacher trainings and regional events throughout the 12th District. Please contact Leon Maynard, Executive Director, at leonmaynard@boisestate.edu for program information. Mailing address: Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, Idaho 83725. Phone: 208-426-1810.

Looking Ahead

During the past 12 months, we unveiled a new web resource entitled What is the Fed? and introduced an ongoing speaker series for educators called Meet the Experts. This spring, we launched Economics in Person (EiP), a video-based program designed to bring the expertise of FRBSF economists to the Web. We also just released DataPost, a weekly series featuring data and charts designed to complement the topics covered in economics courses.

Currently, we’re working on a new HTML5 version of the Fed Chairman Game, a student-based assessment tool for all of our web content, a new online course focusing on how to finance post-secondary education, and a hardcopy booklet based on our What is the Fed? website. We are very excited about these projects and look forward to continuing our relationships with educators throughout the Bank’s nine-state region. Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to serving you in the future.

Sincerely,

Jody Hoff
Senior Manager
Economic Education Group
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco