What better way to celebrate a milestone birthday then to set a daily record for page views and visitors to our website! A huge thank you to the growing wave of educators choosing the NGPF curriculum in their classrooms. I thought it would be fun to envision what the next ten years will look like for NGPF and the greater financial literacy movement. Here are our BHAGD (big hairy audacious goals and dreams):

• 90% of states will receive an “A” or “B” grade on the 2027 Champlain College’s National Report Card (led by John Pelletier): For reference, 49% received an “A” or “B” in the 2015 National Report Card.
• 75% of high school seniors will graduate having taken a course in personal finance (no good data on this today, but I have seen estimates of about 20% today).
• 100% of personal finance teachers will say they feel confident to teach personal finance; up from about 20% today. Interestingly enough in our January 2016 survey, 55% of the respondents felt “highly confident” teaching personal finance.
• There will be a drive towards a fewer number of higher quality personal finance curricula as evaluation studies proving efficacy will become the coin of the realm in achieving market share. When we asked 300 teachers what curriculum they were using in a May 2015 survey, they named over 80 different curricula.
• The move away from paper resources to digital will accelerate. In our March 2015 survey, 49% of teachers responded that they were still using primarily print resources. By 2027, I suspect the number primarily using print will be closer to 5%. I’m not going to predict whether VR reshapes education.
• After the next recession (yes, the business cycle still exists), the pendulum will swing again towards financial literacy.
• As curricula improve and teacher training (and confidence grows), more and more research studies will show the positive impacts of financial education finally putting to rest this belief that “it doesn’t work.”

What will NGPF look like in 2027:

• Our professional development efforts will reach 10,000 teachers per year through a combination of:
  • One day FinCamps
  • Monthly webinars
  • Weeklong Summer Institutes
  • Conference workshops
  • Hybrid PD: combination of online + in-person [to be developed]
  • PLCs
• Our constantly updated and relevant curriculum resources will reach 3,000,000 students each year (or about 20% of 9-12 students). In addition to our current offerings…
  • We will create a math-centric curriculum that can be incorporated into high school math coursework
  • We will package curriculum to meet the varying needs of students in order to create a more personalized experience
  • We will continue to innovate to ensure the curriculum matches the evolving financial landscape
• Our advocacy activities will be working effectively at the grassroots (mobilizing and organizing parents to demand financial literacy in their communities) and at the state (will have a playbook on how to get meaningful legislation passed) and at the federal level.
• Our on-boarding teams will provide a turnkey solution (curriculum, training and technical consulting) to ensure that large-scale implementation of personal finance programs (e.g., at the district level) run smoothly.
• Oh, and all of our content, curriculum and professional development services will continue to be FREE.

As the saying goes “Go big or go home,” and we intend to go big. How will we achieve these BHAGDs? By harnessing the great ideas, the energies and the passion of the educator community. We exist to serve you. You have carried us to this exciting point in our evolution and we look forward to partnering with you over the next decade to dramatically improve financial capability in this country. Thank you!

About the Author

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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