Teacher Training is Critical

It’s wonderful that curriculum for financial literacy courses is readily available for free, as there are plenty of great online course materials and tools at no cost. Growing popularity for financial literacy courses and free curriculum are two ingredients for success. The third is trained high school educators. There is a critical national shortage of these trained educators, which will only be exacerbated as more and more states adopt this course as a graduation requirement.

A successful state high school financial literacy program will train educators and set minimum standards for who is allowed to teach personal finance. An educator should be required to have certain expertise and training prior to being authorized to teach a personal finance course. Most states have fairly stringent requirements on what background an educator must have to teach mathematics, language arts, social studies, and science courses. Rarely are such types of requirements applicable to financial literacy educators.

Being self-taught is not optimal for meeting learning goals. Currently, the vast majority of grade A and B states do not require educators to have demonstrable personal finance expertise prior to being allowed to teach a course. Utah is a leader in this area, with robust requirements for educators.

Class of 2023 Number of Grade A States	7 States
Class of 2023 Total Number of Students in Public High Schools in Grade A States (Fall 2021 data*)	1,681,765
Estimated Number of Public High School Students Taking Course in the 2022–2023 Academic Year (Fall 2021 Data*)	420,441
Estimated Number of Trained Educators Required for 2022–2023 Academic Year (assumes each educator trains 100 students each academic year)	4,204

*Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, and National Center for Education Statistics “Digest of Education Statistics, 2022.” Actual enrollment numbers are from 2021. Data from Table 203.30 Public school enrollment in grades 9 through 12. Total enrollment for the US in 2021 was 15,435,529.

Given our projection that grade A states will be increasing from seven states in 2023 to 23 states in 2028, educator training is desperately needed to ensure the successful implementation of these new requirements. We estimate that for grade A states the number of students that take a stand-alone financial literacy course each year will increase from 420,000 students in academic year 2022–2023 to 1,600,000 students in 2027–2028.

Assuming that each educator can train 100 students in an academic year, we estimate that the need for highly trained educators in personal finance concepts in grade A states will increase from 4,200 in 2022–2023 to 16,000 in 2027–2028. In Grade B states, we estimate there will be a need for nearly 13,000 highly trained educators in 2027–2028. Thus, in half a decade, we will need nearly 30,000 teachers for the A and B states. This number does not include any of the new teachers requiring training who start teaching in public high schools for the first time as replacements for teachers who retire or leave the profession.

Projected Class of 2028 Number of Grade A States	23 States
Class of 2028 Total Number of Students in Public High Schools in Grade A States (Fall 2021 data*)	6,367,758
Estimated Number of Public High School Students Taking Course in the 2027–2028 Academic Year (Fall 2021 Data*)	1,591,940
Estimated Number of Trained Educators Required for 2027–2028 Academic Year (assumes each educator trains 100 students each academic year)	15,919

*Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, and National Center for Education Statistics “Digest of Education Statistics, 2022.” Actual enrollment numbers are from 2021. Data from Table 203.30 Public school enrollment in grades 9 through 12. Total enrollment for the US in 2021 was 15,435,529.

Naturally, we look to our teachers to help students become financially literate since it is not always taught at home. That’s because most adults have never taken such a course. A 2021 FINRA Investor Education Foundation’s Financial Capability Study also showed that just one in five American adults surveyed were offered and actually enrolled in such training.

Imagine the reaction of parents if untrained educators were allowed to teach language arts, mathematics, history, civics, or a foreign language. Yet that is often what is happening today with regard to personal finance instruction in our nation’s high schools.

To produce expert personal finance educators, higher education can play a critical role by creating financial literacy certificate or degree programs. We should encourage interested teachers to pursue professional development opportunities. Many of these opportunities are online and often free. Our Center has offered a free graduate course since 2011 to hundreds of educators. Our Center has also offered free, online, and on-demand professional development training of this nature in Vermont and Maine, and we hope to expand this program, with state-specific content, across the nation. More higher learning institutions should provide educators with this critically needed training.

Such efforts are significant, but they are more than worthwhile. This 2021 research shows that teacher training improves students’ learning. Other research shows conclusively that personal finance education in high school is effective in developing financially capable citizens (see Carly Urban’s article on this topic in the full downloadable PDF report).