Is a high school course with personal finance concepts required to be taken as a graduation requirement? Yes, starting with the Class of 2017, Alabama requires that all high school students take a one-year career preparedness course. This course can be taught in Grades nine through 12; however, the state Department of Education recommends that students take the course in grade nine. See: Alabama High School Graduation Requirements.
The career preparedness course has 23 standards, of which 13 cover personal finance. Based on this information, we estimate that students receive approximately 68 hours of instruction in personal finance, which is the equivalent of a one-semester personal finance course. See: Alabama Career Preparedness Standards.
Alabama's social studies content standards for the required seventh grade Civics course includes principles of money management. See: Alabama Social Studies Content Standards (page 49).
It is not clear how Alabama measures student achievement in financial literacy. Personal finance concepts are most relevant after a student graduates from high school, when they are thrust into a situation where they must manage their daily living expenses. Recommending that students take a course of this nature in ninth grade is not optimal, since knowledge obtained will fade over time. The ninth grade students will not use much of what they learn until many years after the instruction is completed.