Impacting the Financial Education of our Youth

Teaching financial literacy skills to students who are about to enter the workforce is critical; this investment can create a better economic environment for our communities and the skills allow students to compete in the 21st century marketplace. The Economics Center has been working with K-12 schools on this goal for over 33 years. Our experience has taught us what components are necessary to build a good educational foundation of personal finance skills; the critical components are a good teacher and a good curriculum. But, what makes a good teacher? What makes a good curriculum? At the Center, we consider a good teacher to be the one who knows the financial literacy and economic content and importantly, also has the wherewithal to effectively convey those concepts to students in an effective and engaging manner. A good curriculum is one that contains content that is relevant for students the teacher is teaching; in other words, it is appropriate and relevant to the students’ lives, economic environment, home environment, etc. Both a quality teacher and a quality curriculum are essential if any gains are to be made in the personal finance understanding of young people.

The Economics Center excels at training educators to be most effective in teaching economics and financial education. We specialize in providing instruction to integrate these important concepts into the core K-12 curriculum. Curriculum that explains the fundamental concepts such as investing, saving, credit and budgeting may exist. However, a good teacher knows the pace at which to introduce these concepts and how to integrate engaging lessons for practical learning that students can relate to. We train teachers how to have a lasting impact on their students.

One great example of this approach can be found at Reading High School. The Personal Finance Teacher, Mr. Brian Page, has worked with the Economics Center to design and implement a rigorous, full semester course on personal finance. This collaboration included pacing out the content and utilizing recommended lessons. After taking this course, students scored, on average, 30 percent points higher on a test of financial literacy.

When we asked Mr. Page what factors had the most impact on his students’ learning, he stated, “Curriculum alone was not enough. Students needed to participate in hands-on lessons, such as the Stock Market Game. Students really enjoyed it when business professionals from the community came to talk to them in the classroom about important topics like savings and investing.”

As districts approach satisfying the new high school graduation requirements for personal finance and economics, selecting curriculum that meets individual needs of students will be important. It’s critical that teachers have the training to utilize a flexible curriculum that can be adjusted specifically for their school and individual student needs.