Hawaii Financial Literacy Standards
Hawaii’s financial literacy movement comes at an opportune time, as the National Report Card Champlain College prepares every other year gave the Aloha State an “F” grade in 2015 due to its lack of financial education standards. Hawaii does not require students to take a high school course covering personal finance concepts in order to graduate, and schools are not required to teach financial education.
Further, Hawaii has not changed its social studies benchmarks since 2005, although the Aloha State has stated plans to review those criteria in 2017 – a possible opportunity to include personal finance requirements. Champlain does award Hawaii extra credit for creating the Financial Literacy Education and Asset Building Task Force in its 2010 legislative session.
While personal finance is included in Hawaii’s K-12 standards, the state does not require those standards to be implemented by school districts, according to the Council for Economic Education (CEE). No financial education course is mandated to be offered or taken by high school students in Hawaii.
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.
