Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 1 Three Elements to a Successful Financial Literacy Education Program Leslie E. Linfield, Esq. October 29, 2008

Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 1

Three Elements to a Successful Financial Literacy Education

Program

Leslie E. Linfield, Esq.October 29, 2008

Building Assets of People, Families & Communities


The easiest way for your children to learn about money

is for you not to have any.

Katharine Whitehorn


There are three parts to a successful financial literacy education program

They are:• Quality Financial Education

Products• Qualified and Trained Financial

Educators• Evaluation Program in Place to

Measure Results


Quality Financial Education Products

• There are over 1,000 financial literacy education programs available today for the K-Adult market,

• This does not include the materials that organizations produce for their own use.



• What should a quality financial literacy education program entail?

• How do you tell a good program from a bad program?

• Is this objective or subjective?• What tools are out there to help you?• Standards and Benchmarks



• Testing students’ knowledge based on the content of the program will help you determine if the program is effective.

• Pre-testing gives you a baseline• Post-testing will show you

knowledge transferences• 10-25 questions • Multiple choice or true/false is

acceptable



• National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education were created by the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy (www.jumpstart.org)

• National Standards for Adult Financial Literacy Education were created by the Institute for Financial Literacy (www.financiallit.org)


Qualified and Trained Financial Educators

• Do you use paid staff or volunteers?• Do they receive special training?• Are they experienced educators?• Are they required to do ongoing

professional development?• What makes a good educator?



• Professional certification as a financial literacy educator

• Ongoing professional development• Student evaluation of the educator• Supervisor evaluation of the educator



• Center for Financial Certifications offers the Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF)

• Heartland Institute of Financial Education offers the Certified Financial Educator (CFE)


Evaluation Program in Place to Measure Results

• “However, even with the wide range of measures being used, the majority of financial education programs are still evaluated using "program output" criteria such as the number of program participants, number of programs delivered, and number of educational materials distributed. These measures are not adequate when assessing the effectiveness of financial education and can often be misleading since they do not capture changes in knowledge or financial behavior. Effective program evaluations identify whether program participants achieve intended learning outcomes such as those associated with

knowledge, skills, and behavior.” (Are We Making the Grade? A National Overview of Financial Education and Program Evaluation? Dr. Lyons et al. 2006)


• Program output = bad!• Number of people attended

• Number of classes per year

• Number of pamphlets handed out

• So what is an effective financial literacy program evaluation?




• You and your funders will want to see several things:

• Demographics information on your students,

• Students’ confidence levels about their personal finances,

• Students’ attitudes about their personal finances and,

• Students’ behaviors regarding their personal finances.



• Demographics information will tell you who is attending your education session:

• Gender• Age• Employment Status• Educational Attainment• Marital Status • Veteran Status• Income Status• Race



• Demographics information can help you to better define your service population

• Apply for grant programs• More specifically tailor education

programs

• Avoid “Program Output” reporting



• Behavioral Economics Based Evaluation (confidence, attitude, behavior surveying) will allow you to determine if your overall financial literacy education program is having an impact by looking at the students before and after.

• This is done with pre and post surveying.


Measuring Confidence

• This measure allows you to see how they feel about the questions:

Your Confidence to:

Not Confident

A little Confident

Somewhat Confident Confident

Very Confident

Request a free credit report annually.

1 2 3 4 5

Correct a mistake on your credit report.

1 2 3 4 5

Use credit responsibly. 1 2 3 4 5


Measuring Attitudes

• This measure allows you to see how they think about the questions:

Statement

Strongly disagree Disagree Undecided Agree

Strongly agree

Paying my credit card bills on time is important to me.

1 2 3 4 5

Making a plan to rebuild my credit is a priority.

1 2 3 4 5

Knowing what is in my credit report is important to me.

1 2 3 4 5


Measuring Behavioral Change

• This measure allows you to see how they intend to change or actually did change their behavior:

As a result of this program, do you plan to: No Maybe Yes

Already doing this

Does not apply

Pay off your credit card balances monthly.

1 2 3 4 5

Request a free credit report annually from one of the three major credit bureaus.

1 2 3 4 5

Take the necessary precautions to avoid identity theft and fraud.

1 2 3 4 5



• Take the results of the pre-testing and post-testing to demonstrate students actual financial literacy knowledge acquisition

• This helps you to show what the students have learned through your program



• National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) Financial Education Evaluation Online Toolkit (www.nefe.org)


Successful Financial Literacy Education Program

• The three parts needed for an effective financial literacy education program are:

• Quality Financial Education Products• Qualified and Trained Financial

Educators• Evaluation Program in Place to Measure

Results


Effective Financial Literacy Education Evaluation Program

• The three components of an effective evaluation program include:

• Pre and post testing based on the actual education program to show knowledge transferences

• Student & supervisor evaluations of the educators to ensure qualified instruction

• Pre and post surveying of students to measure behavioral changes


Thank you!

• For any questions, please contact:

Leslie Linfield

[email protected]

Documents

Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 1 Three Elements to a Successful Financial Literacy Education Program Leslie E. Linfield, Esq. October 29, 2008