Vermont - 2017

Final Grade

D

Graduation Requirements

Is a high school course with personal finance concepts required to be taken as a graduation requirement? No, taking a course with personal finance concepts is not a graduation requirement. Local districts may offer a personal finance course, either on a stand-alone basis or embedded into another course offering. High school graduation requirements are determined by the local school districts. See: Vermont School Quality and Education Quality Standards (scroll to 2120.5 and then to 2120.7).

High School Education Standards

In 2014, Vermont adopted Vermont Education Quality Standards (EQS) that require local school districts to deliver curriculum aligned to Vermont Proficiency-Based Graduation Requirements (PBGRs) approved by the State Board of Education. Students are required to demonstrate proficiency in global citizenship (including the concepts of civics, economics, geography, world language, cultural studies and history). See: Vermont Global Citizenship Standards. Although global citizenship includes economics, it does not include financial literacy. In addition to the EQS and PBGRs, educational standards have been approved by the state's Board of Education that include some financial literacy topics. Modest but substantive personal finance and personal economics educational standards are included in the fall of 2000 Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities. Most of the framework has been replaced by other curriculum content standards. Although modest portions of the framework are still applicable, these standards, including personal finance standards, have not been on Vermont's Content Areas website since December 2016. On August 30, 2017, the Vermont Board of Education authorized the Agency of Education to research and propose financial literacy standards. It is not clear if these financial literacy standards, when they are proposed and assuming Board of Education approval, will continue to be mandatory. If mandatory, Vermont's grade will increase to a grade C, and if voluntary, Vermont's grade will decline to a grade F.

Caveat

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