Real-world experience enhances accounting
curriculum

By Mary Murray, manager of student
initiatives and financial literacy

Many teachers say today’s high school students, sometimes referred to as Generation Y, learn best through real-world experience.

"Teaching today is a lot different than it was 20 years ago," said Darlene Londo, an accounting teacher at Appleton East High School.

Londo explains that scandals such as Enron have made accounting more exciting.

"When I started teaching 25 years ago, there were not as many different opportunities in the accounting profession. Today, I can also teach students about forensic accounting and how technology relates to accounting," she said.

Students use Excel and also learn lessons in QuickBooks®.

"The concepts are basically the same but how we put the pieces together has changed dramatically," said Londo.

To give her students realistic accounting experience, she often invites guest speakers to visit her class to explain the variety of careers available to someone with an accounting degree.

"The best way to grab my students’ attention is to have Appleton East graduates who are either majoring in accounting or who have recently graduated and are in their first accounting job come and speak to my class," said Londo. "These speakers really turn the light on for the students."

Recently, Londo and her students visited the Green Bay Packers organization. As they sat in a luxury box overlooking Lambeau Field, they listened to the controller and an accounting assistant speak about their jobs. After that, they toured and had lunch at Curly’s.

"Field trips like that are what students remember. It helps make the class fun and it is a learning experience," said Londo.

Londo also sends a letter home to all sophomores, juniors and their parents prior to the course selection process the following year. The letter explains the benefits of taking accounting in high school.

Arlene Feucht, CPA, accounting teacher at Slinger High School, uses her background in public accounting to promote the career to her students. Feucht graduated from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with a degree in accounting, sat for the CPA Exam and worked in a Milwaukee public accounting firm for three years before pursuing her love of teaching.

She supplements her textbook curriculum with units on Enron and other accounting scandals, checkbook balancing and cash controls, annual report analysis, identity theft and personal income tax. In addition, students complete research projects on topics such as the CPA Exam, Sarbanes-Oxley, forensic accounting, college accounting programs, public versus private accounting, the Big 4, and the history of accounting.

This school year, students in her accounting classes worked on a service project called Tax Education Day for other students and staff at the school. Each of her 60 students was asked to recruit three people to do a simulation of his or her own personal tax returns. Approximately 200 students out of a student body of 900 learned the basics of personal income taxes.

"I believe a great way to learn is by teaching others. If my students can teach the rest of the student body about taxes, it will help them better understand it themselves," said Feucht.

Feucht believes that to make sense out of accounting lessons, real-world applications are important.

For the second year, she has taken her students to Deloitte & Touche in Milwaukee for a day-long field trip. Students interact with professionals, see what it is like to work in a downtown Milwaukee office and participate in a catered etiquette lunch.

"My students loved the trip. It is something they will remember for a long time," said Feucht. "From being a student and a teacher, learning is more fun when you make it realistic."

Feucht wants her students to know about the many career opportunities available to someone who studies accounting.

"The students see that the people in the firm work hard, but still have fun. They also realize that there is a lot of money to be made," said Feucht.

David Thomas, accounting teacher at Madison Memorial High School, promotes accounting with a seminar at Madison Area Technical College (MATC) for students in four schools within the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD). This fall will mark the second annual Accounting Seminar and will include Middleton High School in addition to Madison Memorial, LaFollette, Madison East and Madison West high schools. This seminar involves much advance preparation with accounting teachers at each of the high schools, MATC, MMSD, professors from Wisconsin colleges and universities and CPA volunteers.

The event coincides with the kick off of Money Smart Week, an October statewide financial literacy effort. The seminar is designed to show students options for postsecondary education and the broad variety of accounting careers. Students are separated into groups and mixed with others from area schools to show them there are individuals with the same interests as their own.

Students hear from accounting professionals, professors and college students. There’s also a campus tour, lunch and a QuickBooks® activity.

"With QuickBooks®, students learn about the software and its purpose but also understand how important it is for businesses to keep track of information," said Thomas.

Included with the QuickBooks® simulation is a scavenger hunt where they search for information about a company.

Thomas is an annual attendee of the WICPA High School Educator Accounting Symposiums.

"The Symposium is a valuable tool for teachers because it gives us up-to-date information to take back to the classroom and gives teachers the opportunity to compare notes and help each other out," said Thomas.

He has been teaching accounting for eight years and uses resources such as former students who are majoring in accounting and work in the accounting field.

"Keeping in touch with my former students who are just getting their feet wet in the accounting industry is valuable. When I bring them back to my classroom, my students relate to them so well because it wasn’t that long ago that they were sitting in my students’ seats," explains Thomas.

Thomas has a special passion for accounting and began his education as an accounting major, then redirected to finance and finally to business education.

"I want to make my students as successful as they can be to make it through the college accounting program," said Thomas.

McFarland High School teacher, Barbara Schuetz, ties promotion of accounting to a financial literacy event called Reality Store.

Reality Store is a virtual community where high school students choose careers and make decisions about their budgets and lifestyles. The activity is a fun and effective way for students to learn about personal accounting, financial responsibility and life choices, and to interact with business people. This labor-intensive project, coordinated by Schuetz and other teachers, involves more than 60 local business volunteers. It took almost 90 hours to plan the first event last December, in which 170 students participated.

After students completed the project, they evaluated it with a survey. When asked what classes would help them prepare for life situations such as the ones they experienced, the majority answered that accounting classes would be beneficial.

"There was an overwhelming, positive response from the community after we held our first Reality Store last December," said Schuetz.

Largely due to the community involvement and the publicity that McFarland High School’s business education department received from the event, enrollment in next year’s Accounting II class is the largest it has ever been, and the Accounting I class is also seeing an increase.

"The publicity elevated our accounting program in the eyes of our community and school community itself," said Schuetz.

"Letting our parents and our community know that we are working with professional organizations like the WICPA to advance our curriculum is wonderful. The increase in enrollment is the direct result of getting involved with the WICPA and its members and other organizations in our community," said Schuetz.

Besides the Reality Store project, Schuetz enhances her accounting classes by bringing in guest speakers including university students and accounting professionals.

Her high school uses an Internet software program that allows her to share information and communicate with parents. Her accounting pages on the site include her syllabus, helpful study hints, accounting lessons in PowerPoint® format and links to accounting Web sites, pertinent articles and other information.

Before completing her business education degree and becoming a high school educator, Schuetz was a jack of all trades. She worked in various positions including sales and marketing for a private country club owned by Club Corporation of America, sales and marketing for an oil company, a merchandising specialist for Owens Corning® and an executive administrative assistant in the strategic planning and investor relations department of a large restaurant holding company.

"I thought business education would be a great way for me to combine real-life experiences and my love of business to teach students the perspective of someone who has seen a lot of different business angles," said Schuetz. "If a student doesn’t get something I’m teaching, I can almost always refer to a situation in my past business experience to help explain it."

High school accounting teachers across the state are using innovative ways to teach their students and promote the profession. WICPA members support these teachers by actively speaking to high school classes, judging business competitions and volunteering at the High School Educators Symposiums. For more information on high school programs, contact Mary Murray at mary@wicpa.org or 262-785-0445 ext. 3005.