High school students compete in teams of 3- 4 students. Teams must be registered and coached by a teacher. Students compete in the first round of competition online, with testing windows open January 1-February 20, 2026. All teachers will be able to access their students’ scores. Top scoring teams from the  testing round (1 per school/per division) will be invited to the state finals hosted on March 13, 2026 at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA).

Below are the step by step procedures to partcipate. There is a linked video for each step which has been provided courtesty of the Nebraska Council on Economic Education who host the national portal. The portal process is the same for all states.

Teacher Registration:

• You will need to complete the Teacher Registration and be approved by your local administrator before you can begin creating teams.   See this video to learn how to register.  New Teacher Registration

Creating Teams:

• If you are ready to create your teams for this year's competition, you may do so by accessing your Team Administration page and selecting 'Create New Team'.   See this video to learn how to create a team.  Creating a Team

Student Access Codes for Round 1:

• Once your teams have been created, each student will be assigned a unique access code that can only be used once - at the time of completing Round 1 online - and can only be used by that student.  Student Access Codes

Completing Round 1:

• When it is time for students to complete Round 1, they will select 'Student Access' and enter their access code that was assigned to them. They will then complete a short identification and challenge integrity confirmation before they begin the challenge.  Please note:  Students DO NOT need to enter their email address.   Completing the Challenge

Accessing Student Data from Round 1:

• Once all of your student teams have completed Round 1, teachers can access their scoring and category data from their team administration page. Scoring data will show both the individual student score as well as the team score, while the category report will show student performance in each subject.  Accessing Student Data 

AR Economics Challenge Finals: 

The state finals competition will be an in-person competition for qualifying teams consisting of two components:

A testing portion: During the Challenge, students will showcase their knowledge as they complete an economics exam focused on key concepts from micro, macro, and global economics. Students test individually and their scores are averaged for a team total.

Team Presentations: Teams will receive information about the topic for the Team Presentation in advance of the competition. They will prepare a 6 minute presentation on the topic, print copies of their presentation, and be prepared to share and answer questions in front of judges.

Additional details will be shared with qualifying teams.