CONTENT BY GRADE LEVEL

Grade Band Summaries: The grade band summaries provide an overview of the concepts and competencies addressed within each of the four grade bands: PK-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12.

Grade Level Summaries: The grade level summaries offer an example of how content could be divided between grade levels within a band to ensure adequate coverage. These are offered for grades PK to 8. At the high school level, it is expected that the content included in the 9-12 grade band summary would be the core content for a standalone course in personal finance or addressed in a series of courses. 

 Grade Band Summaries

  • Grades PK-2

    In the initial years of elementary school, children acquire a basic understanding of how people earn and use their money. They understand that people in their community perform jobs to earn money and provide a service in the community including those performed by financial institutions. Students can describe ways in which people spend, share, give, and protect their money and provide reasons why people do each of these actions. They learn to set goals and develop a plan for achieving them. They learn that there is a difference between things they want and things they need. They learn that choices have consequences and can identify the characteristics of a good borrower. Students can identify items of value to them and determine ways to keep those things safe. Students can identify basic risks and how to reduce them such as wearing a helmet to be safe while riding a bike.

  • Grades 3-5

    In grades 3-5, children develop an understanding of the choices people make regarding the use of their money. They can differentiate between short- and long-term goals and develop plans to reach such goals. They know that people have to make decisions about spending their money and this can be influenced by scarcity and advertising. Students develop an appreciation for careers and jobs performed in their community including those by charitable organizations. Students begin to develop a basic understanding of credit including factors that influence a person’s ability to borrow money, paying interest on money borrowed, and the responsibilities of borrowers. Students learn that taxes are paid to the government and can identify ways taxes are used. Students develop a basic understanding of financial institutions and can explain the differences between a checking and saving account. Students learn about saving and investing and can identify reasons people do each. Students learn that it can be costly and dangerous to share personal information online and elsewhere. Students can identify basic risk management strategies.

  • Grades 6-8

    In grades 6-8, students deepen their understanding of money and its application to them as consumers. They develop their ability to set personal financial goals and can explain how to apply decision-making skills to financial decisions. Students can identify a variety of ways to earn money including wages, gifts, rent, interest, commissions, and tips. They identify deductions from a person’s gross pay. They can compare various payment options for purchases including the use of credit. They develop an understanding of simple and compound interest and that each can be paid or earned. Students can explain how their actions can influence their credit report as well as their chances of being the victim of identity theft. They explore the concept of entrepreneurship. Students deepen their understanding of risk management by defining different types of insurance and developing logical arguments for having insurance. Students gain further knowledge of investing by exploring the benefits of a well-diversified investment portfolio.

  • Grades 9-12

    In high school, students become prepared to live independent financial lives. They set goals and make plans for how to earn, save, spend, and share their financial resources. They hypothesize the income they will require in the future in order to maintain a desired standard of living. They analyze a career goal and investigate the steps necessary in achieving it. They understand the differences between gross and net pay and the factors that influence each. They can explain the purposes of basic tax forms and can complete a simple tax form. They can explain different ways to pay for goods and services and develop a logical argument for using a specific payment method including various forms of credit. Students understand the impact of their credit score and know what information impacts it. Students are able to complete basic financial applications such as those for a loan or credit card. They know the risks associated with identity theft and how to prevent it. Students understand ways to manage risk including through the use of various types of insurance. Students analyze savings goals and critique investment plans in terms of their ability to achieve goals of liquidity, income, growth, and tax benefit. Students understand the risks and returns of various investments. Students understand that laws enforced by federal and state agencies can protect consumers.

Grade Level Summaries

The instructional framework places an emphasis on integrated instruction for Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade and standalone coursework combined with integrated strategies at the high school level. Expand each section below to see how personal finance content from each of the grade bands can be allotted to specific grade levels.

  • In Pre-Kindergarten, students are introduced to the concept of money through creative play and literature. Instructional time should focus on two critical areas: (1) developing an understanding that people earn money by working and then use the money they earn to buy things and (2) developing an understanding that sometimes people have to wait before they can buy something they want.

  • In Kindergarten, students develop an understanding of personal finance through language arts, math, and classroom procedures. Instructional time should focus on four critical areas: (1) understanding that the choices people make have consequences; (2) setting short and long-term goals (first academically and then making connections to saving money); (3) developing an understanding of the characteristics of good borrowers; and (4) making connections between how community helpers provide services and earn money in return.

  • In Grade 1, students further develop their understanding of personal finance through language arts, math, and classroom procedures. Instructional time should focus on three critical areas: (1) developing an understanding of ways people spend, share, give and protect their money; (2) differentiating between things people want and need; and (3) describing things of value to them and determining ways to keep those things safe.

  • In Grade 2, students further develop their understanding of personal finance through language arts, math, social studies, and classroom procedures. Instructional time should focus on four critical areas: (1) describing the reasons people spend, save, share, give and protect their money; (2) developing plans to reach short and long term goals; (3) describing basic risks and how to reduce them such as wearing a helmet to stay safe while riding a bike; and (4) developing an understanding of how people make informed decisions including the identification of opportunity costs.

  • In Grade 3, students further develop their understanding of personal finance through language arts, math, social studies, and classroom procedures. Instructional time should focus on four critical areas: (1) developing an understanding of financial institutions and explaining the differences between a checking and saving account; (2) developing an appreciation for different types of jobs as well as the different forms of income earned and received; (3) developing an understanding of credit as an obligation to repay what is borrowed plus interest on the amount borrowed; and (4) analyzing how scarcity, advertising, and peer pressure influence people’s decisions about spending money.

  • In Grade 4, students further develop their understanding of personal finance through language arts, math, social studies, and classroom procedures. Instructional time should focus on four critical areas: (1) developing an understanding of saving and investing and how people set short and long-term goals and make plans to reach them; (2) describing ways that it can be costly and dangerous to share personal information online and elsewhere; (3) recognizing that a reputation for repaying loans contributes to a person’s ability to obtain loans in the future; and (4) develop an awareness of financial risk and learn that individuals can decrease that risk by altering their behavior to reduce the likelihood and size of a loss.

  • In Grade 5, students further develop their understanding of personal finance through language arts, math, social studies, and classroom procedures. Instructional time should focus on four critical areas: (1) preparing a basic budget; (2) developing a basic understanding of credit including factors that influence a person’s ability to borrow money, paying interest on money borrowed, and the responsibilities of borrowers; (2) understanding that taxes are paid to the government and identifying ways taxes are used; (3) developing fluency with informed decision making.

  • In Grade 6, students further develop their understanding of personal finance through language arts, family and consumer science, math, social studies, and classroom procedures. Instructional time should focus on three critical areas: (1) developing their ability to set personal financial goals and explaining how to apply decision-making skills to financial decisions; (2) exploring the concept of entrepreneurship; and (3) describing how people’s actions can influence their chances of being the victim of identity theft.

  • In Grade 7, students further develop their understanding of personal finance through language arts, family and consumer science, math, social studies, and classroom procedures. Instructional time should focus on three critical areas: (1) calculating ways people earn money including wages (including gross and net pay), gifts, rent, interest, commissions and tips; (2) gaining further knowledge of investing by exploring the benefits of a well-diversified investment portfolio; and (3) comparing various payment options for purchases including the costs and benefits of using credit.

  • In Grade 8, students further develop their understanding of personal finance through language arts, math, social studies, and classroom procedures. Instructional time should focus on four critical areas: (1) identifying the costs and benefits of increasing income through the acquisition of education and skills; (2) developing an understanding of simple and compound interest and that each can be paid or earned; (3) explaining how a person’s actions can influence their credit; and (4) deepening their understanding of risk management by exploring the costs and benefits of the different ways to manage risk (assume it, reduce it, insure it).

  • In high school, students become prepared to live independent financial lives through a standalone course in personal finance and through the integration of personal finance into business, family and consumer sciences, language arts, math, and social studies courses. Instructional time should focus on six critical areas: (1) developing sound money management skills including goal setting and developing a plan for how to spend, save, and share financial resources; (2) developing an understanding of one’s earning capabilities and how they are maximized by career planning, education, and job choices; (3) developing an appreciation for the costs and benefits of borrowing money; (4) analyzing the services financial institutions offer people to secure, access, and transfer their money; (5) developing risk management strategies to protect against future loss; and (6) understanding how saving and investing influence lifelong opportunities for financial independence.