A study by Wendy Way and Karen Holden titled “Teachers’ Background and Capacity to Teach Personal Finance: Results of a National Study” published in the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning in 2009 found that teachers are not prepared to teach financial literacy.  Fewer than 20 percent of teachers and prospective teachers reported feeling competent to teach any of the six personal finance concepts normally included in educational standards.

Although the trend for states to mandate financial literacy education is encouraging, it's shocking to me that the mandates typically include no training for the teachers!

Surely, if state legislators want students to learn essentials of personal finance, it follows they should want their teachers to learn the essentials, too.  In most states, these same underprepared teachers are expected to review materials for congruency with the curriculum, for efficacy, and for engagement. It's quite literally the blind leading the blind!

An instructionally complete program like MoneyU®, which doesn't depend on the subject-matter expertise of the teacher for her students to succeed, is a good way for the teacher to learn financial skills alongside the students.

Dr. Lusardi has posted thoughtfully on this study as well: Financial Literacy and Ignorance