Ohio - 2017

Final Grade

B

Graduation Requirements

Is a high school course with personal finance concepts required to be taken as a graduation requirement? Yes, Ohio requires that students be provided with instruction in financial literacy. Specific courses in which the personal finance concepts are included are left to each district to determine. See: Ohio High School Graduation Requirements.

High School Education Standards

Ohio's social studies standards include standards for economics and financial literacy. There are 25 content statements and 15 of those statements are personal finance concepts. Assuming a local school district implements the proposed half-year course in personal finance and economics, we expect that those students will receive 36 hours of personal finance instruction. See: Ohio Economics and Financial Literacy Learning Standards (pages 36-37). Hours of instruction cannot be estimated for all students, since each local school district determines how it will deliver the required personal finance education, and implementation methods vary by local school districts. The Department of Education has created an Ohio Financial Literacy Model Curriculum. This curriculum gives guidance to educators as they teach the standards and create aligned assessments. State law does not mandate that school districts use these guidelines.

Extra Credit

In June 2017, the Ohio Attorney General's Office released a report on student debt collection that included 22 recommendations on how to reduce student debt in the state. The first recommendation is for all Ohio high school students to receive one semester of financial literacy education. See: Ohio AG 2017 Report on Student Debt Collection. Ohio already has personal finance standards for grades Kindergarten through 12. Ohio's Department of Education makes financial literacy resources available online. See: Ohio Financial Literacy Standards and Model Curriculum.

Caveat

It is not clear how Ohio measures student achievement in financial literacy or how the state monitors local school district implementation of the financial literacy education requirement.