The Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship (PHCSE) is a K-8, tuition-free, public charter school in Pittsburgh, PA. The school opened its doors in 2011 and has since grown to educate over 400 students from more than ten school districts in the Greater Pittsburgh area and beyond.

Students are educated in an innovative, hands-on, engaging curriculum of Entrepreneurship Education, which is aligned to Pennsylvania Common Core standards. This curriculum is designed to bring entrepreneurial and economic concepts alive for students. The lessons related to the core elementary and middle school curriculum of science, math, social studies, and English language arts will incorporate the basic economic and entrepreneurial concepts.

Utilizing the MicroSociety and the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship curriculum, PHCSE’s youth entrepreneurs produce goods and services and compete in the school’s annual pitch competition, Soaring Shark Tank. PHCSE elected officials establish laws, Crime Stoppers keep the peace, judges arbitrate disputes, and reporters track down stories. All students develop innovative ideas, write business plans, write resumes, earn wages in the school’s “inventive” form of currency, invest in product ideas, deposit and borrow money from “inventive” banks, and pay taxes and rent.