So you have a fascination for teaching financial literacy in schools – you will benefit from reading the following illustration depicting the recommended process in action:

The process of teaching financial education in schools can be accomplished in eight steps, Brian Richardson recently discovered. Brian was a fifth-grade teacher at Samson Elementary School. He had good teaching skills and great rapport with his students, but he wasn’t aware of the best practices for financial education. So Brian sent home a form for the kids’ parents to fill out, asking for their feedback on the children’s behavior related to money. He found out that his students were interested in opening bank accounts.

Brian now understood that the fifth-graders present need was to open bank accounts. He determined to give them some basics to get that process started. His initial time frame was two one-hour blocks set aside during math class. During the time he spent teaching financial literacy in schools, Brian’s students would be able to comprehend, compare, and interpret a few facts about bank accounts – that is, reaching the Bloom’s Taxonomy level known as “Understand.”

Brian now turned toward selection of delivery and pacing approaches for his try at teaching financial education in schools. He had recently learned about the flipped delivery approach to teaching financial literacy – where the instruction took place online, and the “homework” took place in the classroom. He was excited about trying this method. Mr. Richardson decided to base the pacing on the students’ achievement of key skills.

A successful attempt at teaching financial literacy in schools also involves choosing appropriate topics, Brian discovered. He had determined that the kids were ready to open bank accounts, so he thought he could best meet their learning goals by focusing on choosing a financial institution and accounts management.

Brian needed a qualified educator to help him reach his goals for teaching financial education in schools. This person would need to be well-versed in personal finance, plus a confident and engaging teacher. Brian found just what he was looking for by researching the NFEC. The NFEC trains and certifies Financial Education Instructors to have the skill and credibility to teach financial literacy to people of all ages and backgrounds. Brian was lucky enough to find a CFEI in his city which saved him time learning how to teach financial literacy to focus on the programs big picture.

Mr. Richardson then realized that he needed a top-grade curriculum for teaching financial literacy in schools. He needed a flexible format so he could adapt it to his flipped educational model. Initially Brian leveraged free financial literacy curriculum but upgraded to meet all the learning objectives he set. Brian reached his goals easily by choosing a curriculum that had a modular design and could accommodate any scheduling constraints.

How would Brian measure the success of teaching financial education in schools? At the first session, 23 of his 26 students (88%) were in class for the homework activity, where Brian had them research financial institutions online. By two weeks after the class, 7 of the kids (30%) reported having gone with their parents to the bank or credit union they chose and opened a savings account. As an emerging financial literacy consultant, Brian wrote a one-sheet flyer indicating this result and sent it home with all the students, with the hope that it would encourage more parents to open bank accounts with their kids.