South Dakota Financial Literacy Standards
The South Dakota financial literacy movement comes at an opportune time, because the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College in 2015 awarded the Mount Rushmore State an “F” in terms of its academic financial education standards. Champlain’s National Report Card gave South Dakota an “F” because no high school course containing personal finance concepts is required for graduation.
Although South Dakota criteria for high school graduation do require students to take a half-year course in either personal finance or economics, students are not required to choose personal finance and schools are not required to offer money management coursework. Further, the guidelines for the economics curriculum do not include personal finance topics, so there’s no guarantee that students are exposed to such instruction.
The Economic Education Council states that South Dakota does have K-12 standards for financial instruction to be implemented district-by-district, and that a high school course is required to be offered. However, students need not opt to take the personal finance course.
National Standards for Financial Education
Financial Literacy Standards for Older Youth & Adults (High School through Adults)
Although there is no direct mandate by the California State Board of Education, it is recommended that national standards be implemented. Financial education is a unique subject; all participants have developed financial habits and relationships with money before instruction begins.
National standards are those that have been proven in empirical and theoretical research to produce the highest improvements in participant test scores.
Financial Literacy Standards for Kids (Kids PK through 8th Grade)
In collaboration with education leader Heidi Jacobs, the NFEC created these financial literacy standards to define learning goals and educational targets for optimal child financial education. Guided by strong pedagogical theory, the standards ensure that instructional targets are age- and developmentally-appropriate and that lessons can be effectively scaffolded. Standards represent five sections based on topic areas in the NFEC curriculum.
Standards for Financial Education Instructors
The NFEC teamed with the well-known Danielson Group to develop the first and only national standards for financial educators – The Framework for Teaching Personal Finance – to define optimal educator skill sets and performance levels. The framework also identifies the financial educator responsibilities empirically proven to produce highest gains in participant test scores. This framework is used in all 50 states, including California.
