Utah - 2017

Final Grade

A

Graduation Requirements

Is a high school course with personal finance concepts required to be taken as a graduation requirement? Yes, Utah requires all high school students to take a half-year general financial literacy course as a graduation requirement. See: Utah Board of Education Graduation Requirements and Utah Board of Education Rule for Financial Literacy.

High School Education Standards

Utah has very robust and specific competency-based standards that are applicable to the mandated course. See: Utah Financial Literacy Standards.

Extra Credit

The Utah State Office of Education has also created a Utah Educator Website exclusively dedicated to financial literacy. In 2014, Utah passed a law that added requirements to its preexisting high school education mandate. As a result of this law, Utah is clearly the leader in the nation in high school personal finance education. The new law requires that

  • the general financial literacy course must address (in addition to a broad list of topics already legally required) the costs of going to college, student loans, scholarships and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and technology that relates to banking, savings and financial products;
  • the State Board of Education makes available to teachers online resources for financial and economic literacy education, including modules with interactive activities and turnkey instructor resources;
  • high schools administer an online, end-of-course assessment to students who take the general financial literacy course, and fund the creation of such assessment by a third-party expert provider;
  • the State Board of Education provides professional development opportunities in financial and economic literacy; and
  • the State Board of Education implements a teacher endorsement in general financial literacy, which includes course work in financial planning, credit and investing, consumer economics, and personal and family economics. This means that educators must have demonstrable expertise in the subject matter before they are allowed to teach the general financial literacy course.
The law was a funded mandate with a total of $450,000 allocated for the implementation of these additional requirements.

Assessments

Utah requires students to take a standardized end-of-course personal finance exam that was created by a third-party provider and is administered by the state.