Breaking It Down: Disaggregated Personal Finance Test Scores of Teachers and Students

Abstract

The financial and public health crises that have impacted the global economy in the past two decades have heightened awareness of the importance of financial literacy for consumers, businesses, and governments. This study uses secondary school teacher and student pretest and posttest scores on the Test of Financial Literacy to identify persistence and changes in learning for teachers and students by content standard. Using non-random data collected as part of Mississippi's Master Teacher of Personal Finance standards-based teacher training program, results show that teacher participants know a lot about personal finance prior to the training and learn more during the training while their students do not know very much about personal finance prior to starting a class that includes this content and know a little more when they finish the class. Disaggregating teacher and student results shows that teacher knowledge about financial investing is relatively low, and student learning in investing, saving, and insuring is also low. The study highlights the need for implementation guidelines for teachers and required assessment for students. Specifically, the guidelines and assessment could be used to reallocate scarce resources more effectively to teach these content areas where deficiencies are identified.