Progress 10/01/09 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences were high school/middle school personal finance and economics teachers nationwide, as well as their students (grades 7-12). Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In conjunction with other contributors to TCAI, the project supported summer professional development training programs in select states across the country (Iowa, Maryland, North Carolina) as well as a week-long national training conference held in Tucson from 2009- 2012. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?TCAI participated annually in national teacher conferences (e.g., Council for Economic Education annual conference; Jump$tart Coalition's National Educator Conference) from 2009-2014, and numerous state and regional conferences to present workshops on how to use the curriculum. We also created and hosted an online video library and free webinars that featured content experts and scholars. We regularly distribute Take Charge Today electronic newsletters to over 40,000 authorized users of the TCT curriculum, and have recently maintained an active Facebook and Twitter presence. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The objectives of this project gradually changed over the five year course of the project. Effort was devoted to creating activity-based lessons and evaluating their impact on students. From 2009 through 2013, the Take Charge America Institute created and distributed a suite of financial education products to support teachers nationwide. Time and resources in the nation's public schools are stretched thinly across many worthwhile educational objectives. Our Take Charge Today (TCT) curriculum project (formerly known as Family Economics and Financial Education) develops and distributes free online activity-based personal finance curriculum for classrooms in grades 7-12. By providing ready-to-teach standards-based curriculum, Take Charge Today has made it easier for schools and teachers to say "yes" to including personal finance in the classroom. TCT was built with a "by teachers, for teachers" orientation. A group of national experts convened in 2009 to formulate the foundations of the Take Charge Today curriculum. A team of active teachers ("master teachers" selected through a competitive national application process) assisted in the design and classroom testing of all new lessons. During the term of this project, the curriculum underwent a major rewrite to create 30 core lessons, organized into 6 topic categories (Take Charge of Your Financial Well-Being; Managing Your Money; Earning: Receiving; Spending; Saving and Investing; Giving). The overarching curriculum principles, coupled with the development of critical thinking and decision-making skills, provides educators with maximum flexibility to teach the lessons sequentially, as a complete personal finance course, or as modular components that can easily be inserted into other courses (e.g., math, language arts, economics). Short statements of the overarching principles are as follows: 1) You are responsible for yourself; 2) Your present self impacts your future self; 3) You are better off in a community than by yourself; 4) Investing helps you cope with risk and uncertainty. As part of this project, TCAI engaged an independent evaluator to assess the impact of TCT curriculum on multiple aspects of high school students' financial literacy, including 1) Factual knowledge of financial topics; 2) Attitudes toward financial concepts and beliefs regarding financial institutions and services; 3) Practice of responsible financial behaviors. During 2010-11, teachers at 15 high schools in 11 states administered a series of online pre-and post-course surveys to their students, using a treatment vs. comparison group study design. The research found that, on average, students in the treatment group significantly outperformed students in the comparison group. Improvement in financial knowledge was 3x higher for treatment students. Attitudes and beliefs improved for treatment students, but declined over the period among students in the comparison group. The evaluation also found evidence of a "sleeper effect" of financial education. Six months after the course, the financial behaviors of the treatment students improved while the financial behaviors of the comparison group declined. We estimate that 10,000 - 12,000 teachers across the country use the curriculum during any given semester, reaching 1 million students each academic year. In addition, in 2011 TCAI launched a new youth-oriented website to facilitate independent, experiential learning, with the belief that financial capability is built over time and largely outside the classroom. The Consumer Jungle website (www.consumerjungle.org) promotes interactive learning through simulations and financial socialization. The site features online games that develop decision-making skills and illustrate consequences; social networking functions such as online forums and personal finance blogs to encourage peer-to-peer learning; and an online competition model rolled out nationally to classrooms.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2011
Citation:
Invited panelist, Presidents Advisory Council on Financial Capability, national webinar presentation on Evaluation of Youth Financial Education Programs, July 2011.
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Progress 01/01/12 to 12/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: During 2012 we completed a large evaluation project of the effectiveness of TCAI's Family Economics and Financial Education (FEFE) Curriculum and a companion evaluation project of TCAI's teacher training/professional development programs. Findings are reported below. To enhance the reach and effectiveness of our outreach programs, during 2012 the Institute launched a major revamp of the FEFE website (our distribution portal to 30,000 teachers nationwide). Roll-out of the new site and newly revised curriculum is set for June 2013. A high priority of this project is to create interactive national online teacher communities for personal finance. The provision of teacher support beyond the curriculum is already a unique feature of our delivery model, compared to other national providers of financial education curricula. Toward the general goal of infusing economics into personal finance education , I am particularly proud of my work during 2012 with the national Council on Economic Education on a project that produced new economics-based personal finance education standards. These standards (to be released in spring 2013 with the title "National Standards for Personal Financial Literacy") represent a significant step forward in getting personal finance for youth rightly recognized as a serious and rigorous field. A new project was launched in 2012 that will directly draw on FEFE resources to measure the impact of financial education on young people. TCAI and the UA received a $1million grant from the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, Assets for Independence program to develop a multi-year Individual Development Account (IDA), matched-savings program that will encourage low-income families to save for college. At the end of a successful savings program (to last at least 6 months), families with students who are admitted to the UA will receive an 8-1 match against their savings that can be applied to tuition, fees and related costs of attending the UA. A key component of the program is financial education for students and their families. TCAI's Credit-Wise Cats will play a key role in recruiting participants out of Tucson area schools and delivering the financial education. An evaluation program is being developed to track student retention and financial outcomes in the IDA program, as compared to financially similar students/families who do not have the benefit of the financial education and matched-savings experience. Other presentations directly related to this project include the following: "National Economics-Based Standards for Personal Finance," panel presentation at 2nd Annual National Conference on Teaching Economics, sponsored by the American Economic Association, Boston, May 30, 2012. "Financial Education Outreach: How Faculty Can Get Involved," panel presentation at the annual conference of the Financial Management Association, Atlanta, October 2012 "New National Economics-based Personal Finance Learning Standards," panel presentation at the annual national conference for the Council for Economic Education, Kansas City, October 2012. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Findings of the above-mentioned evaluation of our Family Economics and Financial Education curriculum were based on a study of over 900 students in 11 states using a treatment/control methodology. The results show that FEFE lessons significantly improve financial knowledge and attitudes of students measured at the conclusion of the course and six months later. In addition to the full evaluation report (to be posted online in spring 2013), key findings have been summarized and published in an 8-page brochure that will be distributed to key stakeholders and potential funders. The quality of FEFE lessons was also acknowledged by the U.S. Treasury Department when it included three FEFE lessons as part of its educator toolkit to support its 2011 National Financial Capability Challenge.
Publications
- Eades, K., Bannister, R., Hensley, B., Kieffer, C. and Staten, M. 2012. The Role of Professors in Improving Financial Literacy: Roundtable Session highlights from the 2011 FMA Annual Meeting. Journal of Applied Finance, (1): 186-194.
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Progress 01/01/11 to 12/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Over the past year, this project produced one new paper that reflects a collaborative effort to provide direction to the national research community for future research on the effectiveness of youth financial education. The paper was published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. During 2011 we launched a large evaluation project of the effectiveness of TCAI's Family Economics and Financial Education Curriculum and a companion evaluation project of TCAI's teacher training/professional development programs. Substantial effort was devoted to developing the evaluation instruments and recruiting high school teachers and classrooms in 9 states to participate in the test. Students across geographically and demographically diverse states participated in one of two groups: a) the FEFE participant group consisting of students whose teachers utilized the FEFE curriculum for a significant part of the semester, and b) a control group of students who were not taking a financial education course. The research plan provides for pre- and post financial education assessments that include an assessment of the control group and FEFE participant group across three measures: a) knowledge of financial education concepts, b) attitudes toward financial education, and c) behavioral measures designed to determine any tangible gains realized by students who engage with the FEFE curriculum. The pre-financial education assessment was administered in the first two weeks of the semester (late January-early February 2011). Post-financial education assessments were administered at two points in time: the first was at the end of the Spring 2011 semester, and the second was administered in October-November 2011 (for those students who were still in school the following academic year) so as to determine if there are either short and/or longer-term gains associated with exposure to the FEFE curriculum. Analysis of the program evaluation results is underway and should be available in the first quarter of 2012. However, useful benchmarking data on attitudes was obtained for both the treatment and control groups during the pre-test in early 2011. Those findings were summarized in a short executive report and an opinion piece based on the findings was published by the leading banking trade publication, the American Banker, in June 2011. Other presentations directly related to this project include the following: Michael Staten, invited panelist at a meeting on Research and Evaluation, President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability, Research and Evaluation Subcommittee, March 2011. Michael Staten, "Certification and Program Evaluation in Youth Financial Education," invited presentation at the National Endowment for Financial Education Certification Forum, Washington, DC April 2011. Michael Staten, Discussant, Conference on "Assessment and Evaluation of K-12 Personal Finance and Economic Education in the 21st Century: Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior", Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, May 12-13. Michael Staten, "Evaluation of Youth Financial Education Programs," invited Webinar presentation for the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability, July 2011 PARTICIPANTS: The Community Affairs Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco was a partner in the development of the thought-piece on challenges to research on the effectiveness of youth financial education. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Findings from the above-mentioned evaluation of the FEFE project will help to determine effective evaluation instruments as well as establish baseline measures of student performance which can then serve as a comparison for subsequent modifications to the FEFE curriculum and delivery methods. Results should be available in 2012.
Publications
- Choi, L., Reid, C., Staten, M. and Todd, R. 2011. Improving Evaluation and Metrics in Youth Financial Education: Conference Proceedings. Working paper, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
- Michael Staten and Dan Ianniciola. The Kids Are Not All Right With Banking. American Banker, June 29, 2011.
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Progress 01/01/10 to 12/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Over the past year, this project produced one new research paper (Cathleen Johnson and Michael Staten, "Do Inter-temporal Preferences Trump Financial Education Courses in Driving Borrowing and Payment Behavior"). The paper utilized a subset of the Norton School/Take Charge America Institute APLUS longitudinal panel to examine the factors associated with risky money management behaviors of college students. We conducted a series of carefully controlled incentivized choice experiments to measure respondents' risk and time preferences. Both the subjects' degree of impatience (as measured across choices between immediate and deferred rewards) and their levels of risk tolerance turn out to have significant explanatory power in estimating several types of risk borrowing and money management behaviors. The paper was presented in June 2010 at the first annual Conference on Consumer Financial Decisionmaking at the University of Colorado. The experimental work was supported by a generous grant from Chase Card Services. Additionally, during the Summer-Fall of 2010 I worked with researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to organize a 2-day conference on Evaluation of Youth Financial Education. The conference was held at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on October 28-29, 2010. A report on the proceedings and a set of recommended action steps is forthcoming in spring 2011. Also during the Fall 2010, a large evaluation project was designed to measure the effectiveness of TCAI's Family Economics and Financial Education Curriculum (and companion teacher training/professional development programs) for high school students. The project will launch in February 2011. It will involve involve test and control groups of teachers and classrooms of students in at least five states to determine FEFE's impact on student knowledge and planned behaviors. Several research papers are planned. PARTICIPANTS: Co-investigator: Professor Cathleen Johnson, Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, The University of Arizona. Prof. Johnson collaborated on the project that measured risk and time preferences for college students in the APLUS sample. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
It is too early to judge whether the educational interventions being examined are having the hoped-for impact on students. In the case of the APLUS sample (for whom we measured risk and time preferences, along with a rich set of attitude and behavior variables) we are planning a 2011 "intervention" with randomly selected students to brief them on the implications of their relative "impatience". We should have results to report in the next annual report. The same can be said for the FEFE classroom and teacher evaluation, underway in winter/spring 2011.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/09 to 12/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This project did not begin until 4th quarter of 2009. In this iniitial phase, the focus is on empirically examining whether state-level financial education mandates for secondary schools lead to "better" financial behaviors over time for young consumers. We have initiated an experimental project that will engage a large sample of University of Arizona students, those who are participating in a longitudinal survey of financial attitudes and behaviors (i.e., the APLUS project). We will be analyzing the relationship between their exposure to financial education courses in high school and their financial attitudes and behaviors during their time on campus. We already have on hand a rich set of variables on student financial behaviors, attitudes and socio-economic characteristics. As a step toward obtaining additional variables (measures of risk and time preferences, and numeracy skills), in the fall of 2009 we also prepared an experimental design and obtained IRB approval to conduct a laboratory experiment with a subset of the sample. That experiment will take place on campus during the spring semester 2010. The full set of data will be analyzed and a report produced by the end of summer 2010. PARTICIPANTS: The PI is Prof. Michael Staten. One graduate research assistant also has worked on the project. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience for this research would be academic researchers and those involved in public policy decisions with respect to financial education, especially in the public schools. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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