In 2003, The United States Congress officially recognized April as Financial Literacy Month in order to promote healthy financial practices and habits. The need for efficient financial education is more dire than ever and Smart Futures is proud to be a part of the community supplying the resources.
Smart Futures has partnered with Wells Fargo to develop Financial Literacy 101: an online financial literacy resource built around the award-winning Hands On Banking® program. Hands on Banking® provides best-in-class, online learning content while Smart Futures provides pre- and post-assessments and a student tracking system allowing educators to monitor and document student progress. The program age-appropriately tests and enhances student knowledge on a variety of financial literacy topics through three different modules targeted to young adults (grades 9-12), teens (grades 6-8), and kids (grades 4-5).
Financial Literacy 101 is free to all Pennsylvanian schools and community-based organizations (CBO’s) through a grant from the Heinz Endowments. Along with Financial Literacy 101, two other fun and educational financial literacy resources are available as well. NFL Financial Football allows students score touchdowns based on their financial knowledge and Disney’s Hot Shot Business teaches younger kids about entrepreneurialism.
For more information about Financial Literacy 101 go to: www.smartfutures.org
For more information on Financial Literacy Month go to: www.financialliteracymonth.com
Educators have little doubt that financial literacy is an important skill for all students to learn. While there is a wealth of free financial literacy curricula available to schools over the internet, most are not offered to teachers in a way that can be easily incorporated into a classroom. One reason is that most of these resources do not provide student tracking systems that allow teachers to monitor student progress and demonstrate gain through pre- and post-assessments.