Aligning Personal Finance Instruction to Pennsylvania and National Standards
Personal Finance in the Pennsylvania Academic Standards
Personal finance aligns with numerous Pennsylvania Core and Academic Standards. These include:
English Language Arts
Numerous Pennsylvania Core Standards for English Language Arts can be taught and/or assessed in a personal finance context. This includes:
1.2 Reading Information Text and 1.3 Reading Literature with literary fiction and information texts that feature financial topics
1.4 Writing by producing informational/explanatory, opinion/argumentative, or narrative texts with personal finance themes and/or researching financial concepts or events
1.5 Speaking and Listening by engaging in discussions and debates and presenting information on financial concepts.
Download the standards.
Mathematics
The Pennsylvania Core Standards for Mathematics include a number of explicit references to financial concepts. Additional math standards may apply when math concepts are presented in a personal finance context. Examples include determining unit rates when comparing prices, calculating simple or compound interest for loans or savings, and analyzing data on stocks or other financial products.
Download the standards.
Economics
The Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Economics were the first set of standards to include personal finance content. The standard documents linked below include detailed grade-level standards. Personal finance aligns with the standards for
6.1 Scarcity and Choice (needs and wants)
6.2 Markets and Economic Systems (spending)
6.3 Functions of Government (taxes)
6.5 Income, Profit, and Wealth (earning, saving)
Download the standards: Primary, Elementary, Secondary
Family and Consumer Sciences
The Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences are benchmarked at grades 3, 6, 9, and 12. Personal finance concepts are addressed in the following category:
11.1 Financial and Resource Management (needs and wants, budgeting, housing, consumer rights and responsibilities, and income)
Download the standards.
Career Education and Work
Student-level data for the Career Readiness Indicator is based on the Career Education and Work standards. These standards include personal finance content in all four areas:
13.1 Career Awareness and Preparation
13.2 Career Acquisition (Getting a Job)
13.3 Career Retention and Advancement
13.4 Entrepreneurship
Download the standards.
Driver Education
The following standards for driver education align with the personal finance big idea of Risk Management:
14.1 Pennsylvania Laws and Regulations
14.4 Decision-making/Risk Reduction
Download the standards.
Business, Computer, and Information Technology
The Business, Computer, and Information Technology standards are benchmarked at grades 2, 5, 8, and 12. Personal finance content can be found in
15.1 Accounting (taxes)
15.2 Career Management (income and financing education/training)
15.5 Entrepreneurship (entrepreneurship as a career option)
15.6 Finance and Economics (financial goals, income, taxes, money management, borrowing, identity theft, insurance, investing)
Download the standards.
National Standards
Voluntary standards for personal finance are available at the national level. In addition, many other sets of national standards incorporate personal finance content.
National Standards for Personal Financial Education
The Council for Economic Education (CEE) and the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy (Jump$tart) recently shared an updated and unified set of national standards for teachers, administrators, curriculum and resource developers, researchers, and others in the field to promote effective, comprehensive financial education for K-12 students. This combined set of standards replaces the separate standards previously issued by the two organizations.
The standards are organized around six topic areas:
1) Earning income
2) Spending
3) Saving
4) Investing
5) Managing credit
6) Managing risk
The standards identify knowledge, skills, and decision-making abilities that all young people, without regard to race, gender, and family income, should acquire during their K-12 education as a framework for their lives as smart consumers. They incorporate evolution in areas such as behavioral finance, higher education financial planning, identity theft, mobile payments, and cryptocurrency.
Other National Standards
As with the Pennsylvania academic standards, personal finance content can be found in other content-specific standards, including: