What are best practices for states and large districts looking to scale financial education to reach more students? This recent research report provides the answers. 

You may have noticed this recent post summarizing the progress of the community in expanding financial education: "Financial Education Laws Passed in Last 12 Months Will Double The Number of HS Students Guaranteed to Take A Personal Finance Course"

There are currently seven states, Ohio, Rhode Island, Nebraska, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Michigan, in the process of implementing a guaranteed course in personal finance. That makes this recent study by Dr. Carly Urban, Best Practices Implementing Financial Education in High Schools, a must read for leaders looking to scale financial education in large districts and states. Her work can serve as a roadmap to help policymakers navigate the process from getting legislation passed to graduating that first class of students with a personal finance course on their transcript. 

Based on conversations with leaders in 8 states, Carly highlights best practices across the nine steps in the process:  (0) building a coalition, (1) crafting and passing either legislation or administrative rule change, (2) constructing an implementation plan, (3) funding, (4) teacher professional development, (5) developing standards and selecting course resources, (6) teacher endorsement models, and (7) auditing and creating a feedback loop for continuous improvement. I then conclude with a final section (8) that includes final pieces of advice.

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Wondering what the state of financial education is in your community? your state? nationally? NGPF's 2022 State of Financial Education report has all the answers. 

About the Authors

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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Carly Urban

Dr. Carly Urban is Associate Professor of Economics at Montana State University, a Research Fellow at the Institute for Labor Economics (IZA), and a research fellow at the TIAA Institute. She has a full page on her website dedicated to financial education research (https://www.carlyurban.com/home/financial-education), where most of her work has been centered on financial education in schools. This research has been published in top academic journals and covered by major news outlets. When she is not working, she usually spends her time adventuring in the mountains with her husband or her dogs, Cannon and Panda.

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