San Francisco High School Teacher Wins $25,000 Cash Prize in Nasdaq National Teaching Awards Competition

Additional Awards of $10,000 Each Presented to Regional Winners From Florida, Missouri, New York and Wisconsin

New York, NY--In ceremonies held last evening at New York's Plaza Hotel, the Nasdaq Educational Foundation and the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) announced that Karl Ochi, a high school teacher at George Washington High School in San Francisco, CA, was chosen as the Grand Winner of this year's Nasdaq National Teaching Awards. Selected by a distinguished panel of judges, Ochi was one of five previously announced Regional Winners. All were honored by 300 guests at the black-tie gala.

Nasdaq and the Nasdaq Educational Foundation recognize the value of teachers like Karl Ochi who look for creative ways to reach today's students and spark their interest in learning about how our economic system works," said Wick Simmons, Chief Executive Officer of The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. "It is the hard work of Mr. Ochi, the other finalists and all teachers across the country that will help students prepare to make prudent financial decisions in the future."

"Through the efforts of Mr. Ochi and thousands of his teacher colleagues, students are learning the skills they will need to survive and prosper in an increasingly complex global economy," said Robert F. Duvall, President and CEO of NCEE, which administers the awards program sponsored by the Nasdaq Educational Foundation. "We applaud Mr. Ochi for his extremely creative efforts in advancing economic literacy and we congratulate him on winning this distinguished teaching award."

For his award-winning unit of instruction, "Revitalizing the Dismal Science Through Economic Metaphor and Analogy," Ochi received a cash award of $25,000 (this includes his $10,000 prize for being West Regional Winner). In addition, cash prizes of $10,000 were also presented at the awards gala to each of the four other Regional Winners. Twenty Regional Semi-Finalists previously received $1000 each. These awards are among the largest given to high school teachers in the U.S.

The heart and soul of Mr. Ochi's wining entry is his use of props and situations drawn from everyday life to impart economic concepts. By squeezing lemons, popping corn and boiling rice, Mr.Ochi is not teaching home economics; rather, he is using these analogies and metaphors to teach his students about key economic concepts. For example, by squeezing lemons, he demonstrates the marginal cost of squeezing harder for a decreasing amount of "revenue" as the lemon gives up its juice. The economic concept of expenditure multipliers is facilitated by his rice and popcorn demonstrations. Other teaching aids used by Mr. Ochi range from a common bathroom scale to an imaginary barrel of ants. Even an extreme skateboarder on the "half-pipe" is used in Mr. Ochi's classroom to make economics come alive in the classroom.

"My primary teaching objective is to create independent economic thinkers who regularly apply a broad range of economic analysis tools," said Ochi. "To accomplish this, much of my teaching is based on the fundamental economic concepts that lend themselves to the widest range of real world applications. Much as a student of foreign language strives not only to become fluent in the tongue, but to think as a native speaker, students who internalize economics not only learn a new language but a whole new way of thinking."

Sharing the evening's honors with Mr. Ochi are the following Regional Award Winners (the titles of their winning entries, and the schools at which they teach, follow their names):

• Ann Murray "Investors 'R' Us," Aquinas High School, Bronx, NY
• Anna Ruth Vanlandingham "As the Economy Turns," Lake Mary High School, Lake Mary, FL
• Ronald J. Simonis "Economics in American History, " Kettle Moraine High School, Wales, WI
• Pamela D. Calvert "Entrepreneurs and City Government: Partners or Adversaries," Roosevelt High School, St. Louis, MO

Mr. Ochi has been a classroom teacher, guidance teacher and continuation school teacher at George Washington High School for 14 years. He currently teaches Advanced Placement Micro and Macroeconomics, College Prep Economics, American Democracy, and Modern World History and Cultures.

Mr. Ochi has given workshops on his "Economic Metaphors and Analogy" approach to teachers both in and out of his school district, led a team of teachers in the development of San Francisco Unified School District's 12th Grade Economics Standards, and was the recipient of the 1998 California Council on Economic Education's "Economics Teacher of the Year Award." In 2001, Mr. Ochi was invited to serve on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, America's Report Card) Planning Committee to develop a national assessment of economic literacy.

Judges for the 2002 national competition were Alfred R. Berkeley, III, Vice Chairman, The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. and President of the Nasdaq Educational Foundation; Robert F. Duvall, President & CEO, NCEE; Patrick T. Harker, Dean, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania;

David R. Hubers, Chairman (ret.), American Express Financial Advisors; Myron Kandel, Financial Editor, CNN; Harold (Terry) McGraw III, Chairman, President & CEO, The McGraw Hill Companies; Carl Quintanilla, Co-anchor, CNBC Wake Up Call; and Gary H. Stern, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

The awards, created through a grant of the Nasdaq Educational Foundation to the NCEE, recognize deserving high school teachers for their originality, creativity and effectiveness in furthering students' awareness of the financial markets, the capital formation process, principles of investing, personal finance, entrepreneurship and the operation of market economies.

The Nasdaq Stock Market Educational Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization that is engaged in promoting innovative thinking and learning about the role of capital formation and financial markets in a free enterprise system. Its goals are to further financial markets literacy, ensure new generations of well-informed investors and promote interest in financial careers. The Foundation is fully funded by The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc.

NCEE is a non-profit organization that for more than 50 years has been preparing students in grades Kindergarten through 12 to become more knowledgeable consumers, better investors and savers, productive members of the workforce, responsible citizens and effective participants in the global economy. Each year, NCEE and its nationwide network of over 300 state Councils and affiliated university-based Centers for Economic Education equip more than 120,000 teachers in over 70,000 schools with comprehensive programs in economics and personal finance that reach more than 7 million students. Through grants from the U.S. Department of Education, NCEE programs have also reached 1.2 million students in 20 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.