High School Financial Literacy Resources

In this free curriculum, “Take Charge of Your Finances,”any teacher will be fully equipped to meet 21st century financial literacy standards. A highly flexible curriculum including 70+ lessons 145-225 minutes each, packed full of activity ideas and student worksheets, this curriculum is the real deal. This curriculum could be taught in 2, 9 (quarter), 12 (trimester), 18 (semester), or 36 (yearlong) weeks. This curriculum covers:

NEFE’s (National Endowment for Financial Education) HSFPP –
NEFE’s High School Financial Planning Program (HSFPP) is a free turnkey financial literacy program focused on personal finance. HSFPP is organized into 6 modules and each student receives a booklet for each module. All of the HSFPP is free and can be shipped directly to your school. The HSFPP curriculum includes a teacher’s guide, Power Points, and easy to use activities. HSFPP also has many great stats and research backing its teacher and student content. This program includes:

EverFi –
This is a free online simulator geared for 9th-12th grade students. EverFi is brought to you free by Iowa Student Aid Commission and is back by the Iowa Department of Education via I Have a Plan Iowa! In this simulator students will move through 10 learning modules and cover 600 core financial literacy concepts. Students enter an online environment and at the same time they will be meeting 21st century financial literacy skills. This online simulator takes about 45 minutes to complete each module totaling approx. 8 hours to complete the program. This program includes:

Stock Market Game -
Created by the SIFMA Foundation and offered free of charge for Iowa schools by Dordt College’s Center for Economic Education this online stock market simulator is fun and educational. Open to students 3rd-12th grades, students compete to see who can be the most profitable investor. With the online simulator complemented nicely with free online curriculum for teachers this will for sure be a great addition to your classroom.

Budget Challenge -
Budget Challenge is a low cost online simulator that teaches students about income, bills, retirement and the sometimes tough lesson about cash flow. Will students have what it takesto pay bills in time and have money at the end of the month? In this simulator students will learn this skill.

JA (Junior Achievement) -
The JA curriculum comes in a packet in which a volunteer from the community comes in and teachers to a class of students for 6-8 weeks. The JA is a cost and is usually sponsored by a local business that organizes and helps to integrate the curriculum into the classroom.

supplemental sessions)

Adam Carroll’s book, “Winning the Money Game.” A great resource in teaching students about debt and how to build wealth.

PBS movie, “Your Life, Your Money.” In this hour long video students are exposed to real people trying to pay off debt, start a business, graduate college, and follow their career dreams. This is a great tool to start a discussion on money management.

Hands on Banking (created by Wells Fargo for Kids, Teens, Young Adults, Adults). In this online simulator students of all ages learn from the basics of money management to wealth building. These are fun online interactive lessons helping students of all ages learn while having fun.