National Standards
The National Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy has established national standards for K-12 personal finance education.
State of Michigan Standards
On October 1, 2007, the Michigan State Board of Education approved Social Studies Grade Level Content Expectations for K-12 students. The economics section of these expectations—particularly at the high school level—include personal finance expectations.
The State Board says, “The Personal Finance expectations should be included in high school Economics and other elementary, middle, and high school courses.”
Click here to download a copy of the Benchmarks
The State of Michigan is currently working on updating the K-12 Social Studies Standards. You can find the status of the process along with proposed social studies standards on the Michigan Department of Education website.
Overview of Standards
Income
Students will be able to:
- Identify sources of income.
- Analyze how career choice, education, and job skills affect income.
- Explain how taxes, transfer payments, and employee benefits relate to disposable income.
Money Management
Students will be able to:
- Explain how limited personal financial resources affect the choices people make.
- Identify the opportunity cost of financial decisions.
- Discuss the importance of taking responsibility for personal financial decisions
- Apply a decision-making process to personal financial choices.
- Explain how inflation affects spending and investing decisions.
- Describe how insurance and other risk-management strategies protect against financial loss.
- Design a plan for earning, spending, saving, and investing personal financial resources.
- Explain how to use money-management tools available from financial institutions.
Spending and Credit
Students will be able to:
- Compare the benefits and costs of spending alternatives.
- Evaluate the quality of consumer information from different sources.
- Compare the advantages and disadvantages of different payment methods.
- Analyze the benefits, costs, and sources of consumer credit.
- Compare sources of consumer credit.
- Explain factors that affect creditworthiness and ways to avoid credit problems.
- Identify ways to avoid or correct credit problems.
- Describe rights and responsibilities of buyers and sellers under consumer protection laws.
Saving and Investing
Students will be able to:
- Explain the relationship between saving and investing.
- Describe reasons for saving and reasons for investing.
- Compare the risk, return, and liquidity of investment alternatives.
- Describe how to buy and sell investments.
- Explain factors that affect the rate of return on investments.
- Evaluate sources of investment information.
- Explain how agencies that regulate financial markets protect investors