Iowa State University Extension

Problem:
With personal bankruptcies and credit card debt increasing while retirement savings are decreasing, the need to teach financial literacy to high school age youth is critical. Recent studies and surveys showed fewer than half of teens understood how to budget, entering college freshmen have an average debt of $1500 on personal credit cards, and Americans under age 25 are filing for bankruptcy faster than any other age group. And while results of the 2006 Jump$tart Personal Finance literacy survey revealed Iowa students ranked first in the nation in financial literacy, the average Iowa survey participant only answered 55.7% of the questions correctly—a failing grade based upon the typical grading scale used by school.

Response:
Since 1984, the High School Financial Planning Program (HSFPP) curriculum has been promoted to high schools in Iowa to teach youth financial literacy skills. The research based program is available at no charge through a joint partnership of the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), the Cooperative Extension Service, and Credit Unions. Periodically the program is reviewed and updated with a major revision occurring in 2007. The roll out of the curriculum in April 2007 included an all new Student Guide, Instructor's Manual with presentation visuals and data CD, on-line teacher training, a website (hsfpp.nefe.org) with portals for Students, Instructor's and Parents; and utilization of human and technology resources to enhance student learning. Incorporated into the revisions were the Four-Phase Learning Process (inquire, gather, process, apply); Competency Based Learning, and Iowa and National student learning standards.

Impact:
To promote the new curriculum numerous activities were carried out from March – August 2007. The Iowa HSFPP newsletter is distributed to a mailing list of 720 with the Spring 2007 issue highlighting the new curriculum with on-line ordering information. Workshop presentations and displays were made available at Iowa educator conferences including Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA); Risky Business, ISU College of Human Sciences update, Jump$tart Personal Financial Literacy, Business Educators, Family and Consumer Science Educators, and Iowa Credit Union Convention. Information was also shared with Extension employees via Connect and Annual Conference Round Tables.

From April through September 2007, orders for the program have been received from 162 Iowa schools who have requested 9296 workbooks to be used to teach financial literacy to Iowa high school students. These numbers already exceed the total Iowa requests for the curriculum received for the entire year of 2006. The impact of the HSFPP is periodically evaluated with the most recent study from 2003-2004 indicating students who studied the program report significant improvement in financial knowledge, behavior, and confidence immediately after studying the HSFPP. The results of this study can be found on the web at hsfpp.nefe.org – click on HSFPP Evaluations.

Contact:
Mary Beth Kaufman
Shelby County Extension
906 6th Street
Harlan, IA 51537
712-755-3104
mbkaufma@iastate.edu