Alabama - 2023

Final Grade

A

Projected Grade

A

Graduation Requirements

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. The education standards for this course note that it can be taught: (i) as a full-year course in grades 9 to 12; or (ii) as two half-year courses in the following sequence: Career Preparedness A may be taught in grade 8 for one half-credit, to be followed by Career Preparedness B in grades 9 to 12.

Projected Grade Narrative

The policy changes included in HB164, described below, would not change Alabama's grade, but they are an improvement to the current public policy with regard to high school financial literacy education. In May 2023, the governor signed into law HB164. This bill requires that high school students, beginning in the Class of 2028, complete a stand-alone personal financial literacy and money management course before graduation. The bill also requires that students take a financial literacy examination, created by the DOE, and that a summary of the examination results is reported by each local school district to the DOE. Finally, the law requires the DOE to identify approved financial literacy courses that may fulfill 1 unit of academic credit for any mathematics course for high school graduation.

High School Education Standards

The career preparedness course has 24 content standards, of which 19 include personal finance topics. The State Department of Education (DOE) provides a suggested course outline and pacing guide that indicates that the full-year course consists of 140 hours of instruction. Based on this guide, we estimate that students receive more than a one semester personal finance course.

Extra Credit

The DOE's website includes links to financial literacy resources that can be used by educators teaching the career preparedness course.

Caveat

It is not clear how Alabama measures student achievement in financial literacy. Personal finance concepts are most relevant after students graduate from high school, when they are thrust into a situation where they must manage their daily living expenses. Allowing this part of this course to be taken in grade 8 or allowing students in grade 9 and 10 to take a course of this nature is not optimal, since knowledge obtained will fade over time. The 8th and 9th grade students will not use much of what they learn until many years after the instruction is completed.

Year Of Projected Grade

2028