Foundations in Personal Finance Impacting Millions of Students

High school students across the country have the chance to become money savvy adults when they take Foundations in Personal Finance: High School Edition, the comprehensive curriculum from Ramsey Education, a division of Ramsey Solutions. New data collected from more than 1 million Foundations students between 2017 and 2021 shows the financial literacy instruction is effective: Students’ pre-test and post test scores increased an average of 22 percentage points.

Students were tested before and after studying subjects like investing and retirement, careers and taxes, life after high school, avoiding debt, and money and relationships. The Foundations in Personal Finance curriculum has been taught in more than 45% of high schools.

“I am not surprised by the higher test scores,” said Alex Todd, Foundations in Personal Finance teacher at Elizabethtown High School in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. “So many of my students see their parents struggle with student loan debt, credit cards and car loans. A month into the semester, I see their empowerment growing. By the end of the course, they’re smarter than most adults about money and they’re ready to take on the world.”

“The higher scores prove that the principles taught in Foundations in Personal Finance are working," said Jim King, executive vice president of Ramsey Education. "There's a difference between teaching a student what a budget is and teaching them how to actually create and use one. Foundations teachers are helping students build strong money habits early to avoid lifelong money struggles.”

Americans consistently rank personal finances and money as their No. 1 cause of significant stress, according to research done by Ramsey Solutions. Financial literacy advocates say early education is more important than ever, but only 21 states currently require personal finance education to graduate high school. Following the pandemic and the economic uncertainties of 2020, 25 states have introduced legislation that would add financial literacy to schools.

For more information about Ramsey Solutions’ Foundations in Personal Finance curriculum, visit ramseysolutions.com/education.

About Ramsey Solutions

Ramsey Solutions is committed to empowering people in the areas of money, business, leadership, and personal development using biblically based, commonsense principles and education. Every day, Ramsey Solutions reaches millions with nationally syndicated radio shows and columns, No. 1 national best-selling books, products and courses and industry-renowned podcasts and video channels. Ramsey Solutions’ world-class speakers and authors give inspiration, practical advice, and hope to audiences across the country. Ramsey Solutions and its team of 1,000 are dedicated to doing work that matters. For more information, visit ramseysolutions.com.

Methodology

Ramsey Education collected the data of more than 1.4 million U.S. high school students’ pre-tests and post-tests included in the digital curriculum of Foundations in Personal Finance: High School Edition. Before starting a new chapter, students would take an assessment (pre-test) about the material they were about to learn. This assessment told the teacher their level of knowledge about and familiarity with the material. After the chapter was completed, the students would take the same assessment (post-test) as an evaluation of their understanding of the information in that chapter. Data was pulled from August 1, 2017 to April 12, 2021.

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