Economic Democracy Curriculum  ·  For Teachers

For Teachers.
Everything in One Place.

Every teacher guide, every student handout, every primer, the full anthology, the civic labs, and the documents to share with your department — all directly accessible, all free. The work will keep growing as educators bring back what they learn in their classrooms. The three tiers further down are about community — if you want to use these resources alongside other teachers and have access to the creators and facilitators, that's what the cohort is for.

Section I  ·  The Anthology

250 Voices. One Per Year.

From 1776 to 2026. The founders and the abolitionists. The economists who built the system and the poets who named what it cost. The platform builders and the critics who saw what was being built before most people noticed.

Free Teacher Guide — 250 Voices Section-by-section guide, four lesson models, seven high-yield cross-section pairings, notes on handling difficult figures. Use across the full curriculum. View Teacher Guide →
Free 250 Voices — Core Anthology One voice per year of the republic — 1776 to 2026. Eight sections. Founders and abolitionists, economists and poets, platform builders and critics. The full map. Browse the Anthology →
Section II  ·  Concept Library

Economic concepts, taught as thinking tools.

Each primer is a short reading designed to introduce a core economic idea with clarity and rigor. Rather than presenting concepts as settled truths, the primers explore where they are useful, where they create tradeoffs, and where reasonable people looking at the same facts reach different conclusions. Markets, ownership, capital, monopoly, taxation, and globalization are treated not as definitions to memorize, but as tools for understanding how the economy distributes power.

Browse all primers Organized into Allocation · Engines · Power · Distribution · Money & Value — five clusters that map the terrain.
Open the Library →
Section III  ·  Economic Democracy in Action

Economic Democracy in Action.

The application layer. Each lab is a place-based research project where students investigate a real, contested economic decision, gather data, steelman every side, and take a defensible position. Complete, classroom-ready, and built on the same structure — so once you've run one, you can run any of them.

Live Civic Lab 01 · Food Affordability · Hunts Point, The Bronx
The Flagship

Who Gets to Eat Affordably?

Should a city build and own a grocery store? Students investigate the real players, the real money, and the genuine disagreement — the case for the store, the small-grocer’s objection, and the alternative of helping the stores already there.

Open the Civic Labs hub
Civic Lab 01  ·  The Full Package
Student Lab Who Gets to Eat Affordably? The full eight-beat investigation. The paradox, the players, the data, the three steelmanned positions, the economic lenses, and the position task. Built in the La Bodega visual idiom for the student. Open the Lab
Reader The Bodega — History Background reader on the bodega: how it came to be, what it has meant to the South Bronx, and what its place in the neighborhood economy is now. Read (HTML)
Reader Food Economics Background reader on the economics of food: prices, supply chains, retailer margins, SNAP, and what a city-owned store changes (and doesn’t). Read (HTML)
Reader PDF The Bodega — Print Edition Photocopier-ready print version of the bodega reader. Hand to students on day one of the lab. Download PDF
Reader PDF Food Economics — Print Edition Photocopier-ready print version of the economics reader. Pairs with the bodega reader. Download PDF
Field Tool Asset Map Print-ready worksheet for mapping every food source in the study area — bodegas, supermarkets, pantries, markets, and the proposed city store. Download PDF
Field Tool Community Survey Survey instrument students administer in the neighborhood to gather residents’ experience of food cost, access, and trust. Download PDF
Field Tool Interview Guide Question bank and protocol for informational interviews with bodega owners, supermarket managers, residents, and city officials. Download PDF
Field Tool Price Comparison Spreadsheet-style data sheet for the price audit — the same basket priced at every food source in the asset map, with unit math. Download PDF
Field Tool Position & Reform Test The summative worksheet. Students state their position, defend it against the strongest objection, and propose the reform test — the smallest change that would make the system both more productive and more democratic. Download PDF
Shared Across Every Lab
Method Researcher’s Toolkit The methods that carry across every Civic Lab — interviews, surveys, field study, reading public data, evaluating a source, using AI in research, and synthesizing a position. Open the Toolkit
Standards Ethics & Fieldwork Standards The standards every lab follows before students go into the field — informed consent, dignity, accuracy, and the line between research and advocacy. Read the Standards
Open the Civic Labs Hub →
Section IV  ·  Building Wealth

A guide to ownership, security, and freedom.

Built for students and working people who want to understand how wealth is actually built. Start with the Wealth Lab to assess your current position and identify your next move. Explore the concept primers to deepen your understanding. Then read The Tool and the End, a reflection on ownership, security, freedom, and the purpose wealth is meant to serve.

The Pillar  ·  What's Included
Pillar Landing Building Wealth An introduction to the Building Wealth pillar, the core ideas behind it, and where to begin. Open the Landing
The Lab The Wealth Lab · The Game of Life Take stock of where you stand, understand how wealth is built, and identify your next move. Open the Lab
Framework Essay The Tool and the End A reflection on the relationship between money, ownership, freedom, and the purpose wealth is meant to serve. Read the Essay
Concepts Seven Stages · The Primers Learn the core concepts behind earning, saving, investing, ownership, business creation, and long-term wealth-building. Browse the Primers
Capstone Individual Building vs. Concentration A final challenge: how much can individuals change through better decisions alone, and where do larger economic structures still matter? Read the Capstone
For Reference How Wealth Is Actually Built The five-stage model that organizes the entire pillar — from survival and stability to ownership, financial independence, and beyond. Open the Model
Open the Building Wealth Pillar →
Section V  ·  Built to Use Tomorrow

Built to Use Tomorrow.

The connective tissue that turns a library of materials into a course you can run Monday morning — ready-to-run units paired with the cross-cutting routines, rubrics, and student-facing scaffolding that hold the curriculum together.

Ready-to-Run Units

Unit 1Course Introduction
Civic Education Introduction Why this course exists and what it asks of students. Positions A, B, and C — all present simultaneously. The opening essay for the full curriculum. Read Introduction →
Educator Overview The rationale, scope, and teaching philosophy behind the full two-year curriculum. Four pages. Print and share with your department before the first day. View Educator Overview →
Unit 2The Framework — Mapping Power, Democracy & the Economy
Teacher Guide — Mapping Power Complete facilitation guide. Five-phase structure, teacher script, discussion question notes, three differentiation options. 60–90 minutes. View Teacher Guide →
Framework Handout The matrix, four quadrant descriptions, placement activity, sentence frames, and reflection prompts. Five pages, photocopier-friendly. Download Handout (PDF) →
Unit 3Revolution, Counterrevolution, and Reform
Teacher Guide — Revolution/Reform Five phases, teacher script, discussion question notes with "listen for" cues, matrix application guide for all three decision points, three differentiation options. 60–90 minutes. View Teacher Guide →
Revolution, Counterrevolution, and Reform Student conceptual essay on the cyclical decision point in American history. Three historical decision points, five discussion questions, matrix application activity. Read the Student Essay →

Cross-Cutting Tools

01 · Method Unit Design Guide How to weave the three strands into one arc: learn the tool (a primer), hear the argument (the voices), take a stance (a project). A reusable method plus four units built and ready. View the Guide →
02 · Routine Warm-Ups & Exit Tickets — Concepts A bookend routine for any concept: open by surfacing what students already believe, close by checking what landed. Universal prompts plus a tuned pair for every primer. View the Routine →
03 · Routine Warm-Ups & Exit Tickets — 250 Voices The same routine, built for the anthology: placement, pairing, and the central question, section by section. View the Routine →
04 · Assessment Assessment Suite Three rubrics and a worked sample, built to grade the thinking, not the agreement. A student can argue any side and earn top marks — if the reasoning is sound. View the Suite →
05 · For Students Student Handbook You Are Entering an Argument. The student-facing guide: why economic understanding is citizenship, how the course works, and how it's graded. The one piece written for the student to keep. Read the Handbook →
Section VI  ·  For Department Heads & Administrators

For Department Heads & Administrators.

Economic Democracy is standards-completing, not standards-rejecting. The Standards Crosswalk maps all the concepts and the teaching units against the Council for Economic Education's 2025 economics pillars and the C3 inquiry framework — full or near-full coverage across all eighteen pillars, including CEE's newest (Technology), with a single honest, supplementable light spot (formal GDP-accounting mechanics). The Educator Overview lays out the rationale, scope, and philosophy in four pages to share with your department before the first day.

Document Standards Crosswalk All 48 concepts and the teaching units mapped against the CEE 2025 economics pillars and the C3 inquiry framework. View → Document Educator Overview The rationale, scope, and philosophy of the full two-year curriculum. Four pages, written for department review. View →
Membership · Use the Materials Together

Three Ways to Join.

Everything above is yours to use, if you are a paid member. If you want to use these materials with your students, your school, or your network — with direct access to the creators, ongoing facilitation, and a community of educators piloting this work together — choose the tier that fits your context.

Tier 1 · For the Individual Educator Pilot $500 per teacher / semester

For the single classroom teacher piloting Economic Democracy in their own course this year.

  • Direct access to the creator
  • Monthly cohort calls with other pilot teachers
  • Office hours for unit planning & troubleshooting
  • Early access to new units as they ship
Join as an Educator →
Tier 2 · For the School School Adoption $5,000 per school / year

For a department or school running Economic Democracy across multiple sections, with full faculty support.

  • Everything in Educator Pilot, for the full faculty
  • On-site or virtual launch workshop
  • Quarterly department coaching sessions
  • Co-design support for the Civic Lab in your community
Adopt at Your School →
Tier 3 · For the Network Network Partnership $25,000 per network / year

For a district, charter network, or organization deploying Economic Democracy across many schools.

  • Everything in School Adoption, network-wide
  • Network-wide professional development series
  • Custom Civic Labs built for your communities
  • A seat at the table shaping what gets built next
Partner with the Network →

Not sure which tier is right? See the full comparison →