Financial Literacy Graduate Course for Educators

New classes will be announced Fall 2024.

Previous Courses:

Scholarships for 3 Graduate-Level Credits are Available for Middle & High School Educators from New England & New York

These scholarships are generously sponsored by the Rauch Foundation, which supports and promotes financial preparedness of rising generations of students by supporting schools in the delivery of financial literacy programs.

About the Financial Literacy Graduate Course

The goal of this online, asynchronous course is to increase the financial literacy knowledge and instructional capability of educators through targeted training on personal finance topics. Due to the generosity of the Rauch Foundationtwenty scholarships are available for our 8-week graduate course that will be offered from May 6 to June 28, 2024.

These scholarships are only available for middle and high school educators from the following states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The deadline for scholarship applications is April 25, 2024. Scholarships will be awarded on a rolling admissions basis.

The scholarship covers 100% of the tuition expense and is worth $1,500. These scholarships are competitive, our Center typically receives 3 applications for each available scholarship. 

Teachers who complete the training will have the confidence, skills and curriculum tools to successfully train their students in financial literacy topics. This financial literacy boot camp will cover saving and investing, credit reports and scores, credit and debt, managing risk, income and careers-in short, the financial knowledge needed to navigate daily life and how to bring this important knowledge to your middle & high school students.

Our Center has taught this course to middle & high school educators since 2011. The Center’s innovative programs and curriculum has already trained over 1,000 educators and our programming has been recognized by the White House, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the FDIC and by President Obama’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability. The course has also been the subject of two studies showing the impact of the instruction (see Research Report and Prepped for Success).

The course uses the Jump$tart Financial Foundations for Educators Model for a portion of its curriculum programming. This educational model was originally developed by the Jump$tart Coalition, the National Endowment for Financial Education, the Council for Economic Education, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Family Economics and Financial Education, Junior Achievement, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The Center was one of five organizations chosen to pilot this education programming (three-year pilot ran from 2011-2013).

The course is one of the few places in the nation where an educator can earn a master’s degree credit in learning how to teach personal finance. Educators who successfully complete the course will receive 3 graduate degree credits from Champlain College. The Center’s research on the course programming clearly shows the major impact that trained educators can have by improving their students’ financial knowledge and behaviors. Based on national survey data, high school students who received personal finance education by our trained teachers (in a 2015 report) had “high financial literacy”, on par with older Generation Xers (age 35 to 49) and outperformed Millennials (age 18 to 34). Teachers who took this course also reported positive material changes in their own lives and personal finance management as well.

For registration questions contact: cfl@champlain.edu.

FAQs

  • This session of the Teach Financial Literacy Graduate Course is only available to Middle and High School educators from the following states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
  • The application deadline is April 25, 2024.
  • To apply for a scholarship for this class, fill out the application.

    1. Click Apply for Admission to create an account (select Returning User if you already have an account).
    2. You will be asked: What type of program are you applying to? From the drop-down menu, select Understanding How To Teach Financial Literacy.
    3. Next, you will be asked to select a Program of Interest. From the drop-down menu, select Teach Financial Literacy.
    4. Next, you will be asked to select a Term for taking the course. From the drop-down screen menu, select 2024 Summer 1: May 6 to June 28.
    5. After you have completed these application sections, complete a variety of questions related to you and your teaching of students.
    6. When completed, submit your application. After it is reviewed, you will be notified of the status of your application by no later than April 25, 2024.

    NOTE: Your scholarship application is not complete, and will not be reviewed, prior to our college receiving a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree transcript from the college or university you attended (you only need to supply one degree transcript if you have both a BA and MA). Our admissions department is required to ensure that you are eligible to receive graduate level credit.  It can take days or a week for your postsecondary degree institution to send these to our admissions department. You must contact your college or university and request that your transcripts be sent to Champlain College Online. The transcripts must be sent by your degree granting institution directly to Champlain College Online, either digitally to cco@champlain.edu, by fax (802-419-5321), or by mail (Champlain College Online, PO Box 670, Burlington, VT 05402).
  • This 8-week course is a graduate level course titled “Teach Financial Literacy”.

    Course Title: Teach Financial Literacy GEED-680

    Course Description: In this course, you will explore personal finance and financial literacy, and models for integrating financial literacy into the middle and high school curriculum. You will reflect upon your own understanding and practices of personal finance. You will then examine existing curricula on the topic, review articles and online resources, and listen to presentations from experts in the field. As a final capstone project, you will use National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education to design an Action Plan focused on integrating financial literacy knowledge and skills into your curriculum. Upon successful completion of this course, you will receive 3 graduate level credits. In order for the college to award these graduate credits, you will need to provide an official transcript that proves you are eligible to take a graduate course. For teachers who are in the process of completing their graduate degree, this is a great way to obtain an elective course credit.
  • The Financial Literacy Graduate Course for Educators is currently only being offered in an online, asynchronous format meaning that you are not required to “attend class” at set times. Students have deadlines throughout the week for discussion posts and homework assignments, but you have the freedom to log on and complete your coursework wherever and whenever it’s convenient for you. Subject matter experts will have available office hours each week.
  • Please email us your inquiry and we will get back to you as soon as possible!

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