High School Tools for Financial Education

A few more thoughts from the third annual Jump$tart National Educator Conference … I sat in on a workshop session about high school financial education tips, which featured a few programs and presenters – and a very full room of teachers.
Lekeshia Frasure from FDIC presented the agency’s Money Smart curriculum. A comprehensive program, it is module-ized and includes sections for:

• Bank On It (understand available banking services and how to build a positive relationship with a financial institution)
• Borrowing Basics (how credit works, types of credit that are available)
• Check It Out (how to use a checking account)
• Pay Yourself First (ways to save money and savings options)
• Keep It Safe (how to protect their rights as consumers and how to be financially prepared if a disaster strikes)
• To Your Credit (how to read a credit report and how to build and repair their credit history)
• Charge It Right (how to use a credit card responsibly)
• Loan To Own
• Your Own Home
• Financial Recovery
• Setting Financial Goals (Young Adult Curriculum)
• Paying For College and Cars (Young Adult Curriculum)
• A Roof Over Your Head (Young Adult Curriculum)
• Money Matters (how to manage money by preparing a personal spending plan and identifying ways to decrease spending and increase income)

(Money Habitudes is often used by teachers and facilitators as an introduction to the Money Smart curriculum or as a supplementary or complementary module for values, attitudes, habits and behaviors around money.)
Haven’t listed to it, but it’s cool that the Money Smart content is also available via the FDIC’s Money Smart Podcast Network (MSPN). It’s financial education in a talk show format. Forget listening to “Eye of the Tiger” at the gym; instead try Bank Services & Personnel Part I!

Melanie Mortimer from SIFMA presented The Stock Market Game (SMG). Meant to give kids a realistic view of the market as traders see it, it’s also meant to demystify the stock market and investing – and do it in a way that certainly aligns with the underlying idea of Money Habitudes: make learning about money fun, interesting and personally relevant. As the game’s site says, “They think they’re playing a game. You know they’re learning economic and financial concepts they’ll use for the rest of their lives.” And as Mortimer says, the game is based around transactional learning, where students learn best by doing.
Mortimer says that a FINRA study found that, in general, students who play the game do better on financial literacy tests. More information can be found in this FINRA study of the Stock Market Game.