Delaware Financial Literacy Standards
As stated by the Champlain College Center for Financial Literacy, which issues a National Report Card every other year grading each U.S. state on its financial education standards, Delaware is lagging in this regard: in 2015 the First State received an “F” mark. No personal finance instruction is included in Delaware’s high school graduation requirements. Although Delaware has personal finance education benchmarks in place for schools that choose to offer it, there’s no mandate that schools offer or that students take such a course.
Champlain does award Delaware extra credit for passing a 2009 law creating the Financial Literacy Education Fund. This law requires businesses that make short-term consumer loans (aka payday loans) and car title loans to pay an annual high-cost loan license fee of $1,500 for each licensed office. These funds are earmarked as grants to schools or organizations to fund K-12 financial literacy programs.
As of 2015, the Economic Education Council reports that – although personal finance is included in K-12 standards – no such standards are required to be implemented by districts, and no high school course is required to be offered and/or taken in Delaware schools.
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.
