1. 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

2. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 2 The easiest way for your children to learn about money is for you not to have any. Katharine Whitehorn

3. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 3 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

4. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 4 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.

5. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 5 Quality Financial Education Products 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

6. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 6 Quality Financial Education Products 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

7. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 7 Quality Financial Education Products National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education were created by the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy (www.jumpstart.org)www.jumpstart.org National Standards for Adult Financial Literacy Education were created by the Institute for Financial Literacy (www.financiallit.org)www.financiallit.org

8. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 8 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?

9. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 9 Qualified and Trained Financial Educators Professional certification as a financial literacy educator Ongoing professional development Student evaluation of the educator Supervisor evaluation of the educator

10. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 10 Qualified and Trained Financial Educators Center for Financial Certifications offers the Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF) Heartland Institute of Financial Education offers the Certified Financial Educator (CFE)

11. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 11 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)

12. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 12 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? Evaluation Program in Place to Measure Results

13. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 13 Evaluation Program in Place to Measure Results 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.

14. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 14 Evaluation Program in Place to Measure Results Demographics information will tell you who is attending your education session: Gender Age Employment Status Educational Attainment Marital Status Veteran Status Income Status Race

15. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 15 Evaluation Program in Place to Measure Results Demographics information can help you to better define your service population Apply for grant programs More specifically tailor education programs Avoid “Program Output” reporting

16. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 16 Evaluation Program in Place to Measure Results 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.

17. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 17 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. 12345 Correct a mistake on your credit report. 12345 Use credit responsibly. 12345

18. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 18 Measuring Attitudes This measure allows you to see how they think about the questions: Statement Strongly disagree DisagreeUndecidedAgree Strongly agree Paying my credit card bills on time is important to me. 12345 Making a plan to rebuild my credit is a priority. 12345 Knowing what is in my credit report is important to me. 12345

19. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 19 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: NoMaybeYes Already doing this Does not apply Pay off your credit card balances monthly. 12345 Request a free credit report annually from one of the three major credit bureaus. 12345 Take the necessary precautions to avoid identity theft and fraud. 12345

20. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 20 Evaluation Program in Place to Measure Results 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

21. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 21 Evaluation Program in Place to Measure Results National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) Financial Education Evaluation Online Toolkit (www.nefe.org)www.nefe.org

22. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 22 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

23. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 23 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

24. Institute for Financial Literacy © 2008 24 Thank you! For any questions, please contact: Leslie Linfield llinfield@financiallit.org 207-221-3613