Arkansas - 2017

Final Grade

B

Graduation Requirements

Is a high school course with personal finance concepts required to be taken as a graduation requirement? Yes, but the current requirements will change for the Class of 2021. Up through the Class of 2020, the Arkansas Smart Core curriculum requires high school students to complete a half-year course (one-half of a credit) in economics for graduation. The standards for this course include personal finance topics. Depending on the teacher's licensure, it can count as a social studies credit or career-focus credit. See: Arkansas High School Graduation Requirements (pages 9-11). Based on a law passed in 2017, beginning with the Class of 2021, each student, prior to graduating high school, is required to earn an academic credit (the equivalent of a full-year course) in a course taken in grades 10-12 that includes a list of topics in the following areas: income, money management, spending and credit, saving and investing, and preparing for employment. See: Arkansas Legislation Requiring Personal Finance.

High School Education Standards

The requirements through the Class of 2020 have two out of nine strands in economic standards focused on personal finance concepts. Based on this information, we estimate that students receive approximately 13 hours of instruction in personal finance. See: Arkansas Social Studies Standards. The 2017 legislation appears likely to result in materially more topics and class time being allocated toward personal finance topics beginning with the Class of 2021. The law requires the state's Department of Education and Department of Career Education to consult and jointly develop new personal and family finance standards, and it requires that these standards be reviewed and approved by the State Board of Education. Arkansas' grade does not reflect the passage of this law because it has not yet been implemented. Any grade given in a future National Report Card by the Center for Financial Literacy will be based on how this new requirement is actually implemented. If Arkansas chooses to require the equivalent of a full semester course in personal finance, the state will receive an A grade.

Caveat

It is not clear how Arkansas measures student achievement in financial literacy. Allowing students to take a course of this nature in Grade 10 is not optimal, since knowledge obtained will fade over time. The Grade 10 students will not use much of what they learn until years after the instruction is completed.