THE STATUS OF PERSONAL FINANCE COURSES IN PENNSYLVANIA
Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts take very different approaches to offering and/or requiring personal finance courses to high school students. Use the interactive map below to explore the most recently collected data from the Making Cents Project. The information reflected on the map is the result of information collected for the 2022-2023 school year from each school district via its website and/or direct contact with school personnel.
It is important to note that the status of personal finance courses is ever-changing. For example, some schools may offer a course this year as an elective but have already decided to require it of an upcoming year’s graduating class. If you locate information that you believe has changed or should be updated. Please contact us.
For this analysis, each district was given a numerical code that corresponds to a specific “status” based on the following information:
Is the course required of all or almost all students? (Exceptions to this include schools with different graduation requirements for students participating in a vocational or technical program.)
To what extent does the content of the course focus on personal finance content? If the course is all or nearly all personal finance, it is categorized as standalone. If not, it is considered embedded into another course.
How long is the course or how much credit is given? Standalone courses were divided into those equal to or greater than a semester in length (0.5 credits or more) and those less than a semester (less than 0.5 credits).
