Effectiveness in Financial Education
It’s not enough to bring financial education to every school in America. That financial education must be effective!
To achieve that goal, the Jump$tart Education Committee—made up of experts in finance, education, and research—established The Essential Elements of Effective Financial Education. These Essential Elements are designed to help teachers, school administrators, and stakeholders develop and implement classroom-based financial education that achieves its desired results.
While Jump$tart values and appreciates all efforts to educate young people about money management, we will use these Essential Elements as the basis for identifying financial education that “makes the grade.”
What if the program at our school doesn’t have these essential elements? Don’t worry, Jump$tart does not have any compliance oversight. But we do have the expertise to know what works, and we encourage you to use these Essential Elements to strengthen and improve the financial education at your school!
Essential Elements
| Elementary | Middle School | High School | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum amount of instruction | 20 instruction hours | 45 instruction hours. | 70 instruction hours. |
| Standards | Aligned with State or National Standards. | Correlated to State or National Standards. | Correlated to State or National Standards. |
| Resources Used | Vetted curriculum resources and/or tested online programs. | Vetted curriculum resources and/or tested online programs. | Vetted curriculum resources and/or tested online programs. |
| Teacher | Has a degree or certification in finance or financial education or 10 PD hours in financial education in the past 5 years. | Has a degree or certification in finance or financial education or 15 PD hours in financial education in the past 5 years. | Has a degree or certification in finance or financial education or 24 PD hours in financial education in the past 5 years. |
| Student Assessment | Must be given and tracked. | Must be given. Passing grade required. | Must be given. Passing grade required. |
Special events and activities such as field trips, assemblies, competitions, and community projects are highly encouraged and may count toward instruction hours; but, should not take the place of formal classroom instruction entirely.
