About Finance in the Classroom

Youth Financial Literacy in Utah

The Utah State Board of Education and Legislature have taken bold steps to empower the state’s youth with financial knowledge that will lead to future stability and success in homes and the economy. These steps include:

Beginning with the graduating class of 2008, Utah students are required to successfully pass a semester (.5) Financial Literacy Course.
Financial and Economic concepts will be introduced to students in all grades through integrated lessons in core areas.
Utah students will have an opportunity to earn a Financial and Economic Passport Certificate by completing coursework and at-home/community activities.
The Finance in the Classroom program design will assist teachers, students and parents to incorporate Financial and Economic understanding both at school and at home.

How was Finance in the Classroom developed?

Legislation sponsored by Senator Pat Jones in 2008 required that Financial and Economic Education be taught in grades K-12 through the core areas of Math, Social Studies, and Language Arts. Included in this legislation was the Financial and Economic Education Passport, which gives students an opportunity to be recognized for completing age-appropriate activities and lessons.

In addition to the legislation, the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Utah Education Network (UEN) jointly submitted and subsequently received a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Public Media Innovation Fund. This resulted in an ongoing partnership wherein USBE provides professional review and grade assignment of resources, and UEN provides technical assistance to design, populate and maintain the Finance in the Classroom website.

Under the direction of USBE, groups of teachers designed a matrix assigning legislated financial and economic concepts to each grade level. Lessons, activities, PowerPoints, videos, books, music and other resources have been compiled to facilitate the teaching of these concepts.

Finance in the Classroom will help Utah’s dedicated K-12 teachers to effectively incorporate financial literacy concepts into their instruction with comprehensive online resources and community awareness regarding the value of this instruction.

Who are the Finance in the Classroom Partners?

Support for Finance in the Classroom is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Finance in the Classroom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.