According to a survey by Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF), a nonprofit organization committed to ensuring that all high school students receive a personal finance course before graduation, notes that more than 80% of personal finance professors said a course on the subject should be taught when students are in grade 11 or 12.
“As more states guarantee a personal finance course for all high school students, it is important that legislators recognize when the course should be delivered as an important considerationsaid Tim Ranzetta, co-founder of NGPF.
In the survey, more than 2,400 educators in the NGPF network responded to the question: In their experience, if a semester-long course could be taught to students in only one grade in high school, would What do you think would be the best grade level to teach them?
81% of respondents said the course should be taught in grade 11 or 12with 38% preferring grade 11 and 43% preferring grade 12.
“Not surprisingly, teachers prefer to teach personal finance in the 11th or 12th grade rather than the earlier years of high school. With students on the verge of achieving financial independence, their level of interest in the subject is likely to be higher.said Carly Urban, a professor of economics at Montana State University. “The questions that 11th and 12th grade students in personal finance will ask will be most directly relevant to their immediate financial future.”
Teachers who responded to the survey reflected this sentiment: “In grade 12, students begin to realize the importance and urgency of needing this knowledge.said Kerri Herrild, a personal finance teacher at Pere’s high school in Wisconsin. “They are closer to adulthood now than they have been during their high school experience, and they are beginning to make these financial decisions that will shape their future for years to come.”
Research clearly shows that guaranteed personal financial education leads to positive results and improves quality of life.
The movement to ensure personal finance education in high school is growing. Just in the last two years, the number of states that guarantee a semester-long course to all high school students has increased from 8 to 17 states. As early as 2023, as of February 21, 74 bills have been introduced in 21 states to add high school graduation requirements, according to the NGPF’s K-12 Financial Literacy Bill Tracker.
The analysis highlights that while more states are stepping up and adopting this guarantee, three out of four high school students in the United States still they do not have guaranteed access to a personal finance course.
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