High School Financial Literacy GEAR-UP Students.  Wichita State University (approved Promising Practice October 31, 2014).  Strong financial knowledge is important to people of all ages.  Finance makes a difference in our lives both on a short and long term basis. It effects how we interpret everyday life and analyze information.  Improved financial literacy, particularly early in life, results in a higher standard of living over the long term, aids in career choices and helps determine retirement savings.  Providing young people with the knowledge, skills, and opportunity to establish healthy financial futures is far preferable to having to provide credit repair or debt management services later on in their lives (M.S. Sherraden, 2013).   Kansas Kids @ GEAR UP (KKGU) designed an online high school financial literacy program based on the National Standards for K-12 Personal Finance Education created by Jump$tart.    The high school program consists of six components that teach students financial knowledge in financial responsibility, income and careers, planning and money, credit and debt, risk management and insurance, and saving and investing.

The goal is to ensure seniors do not graduate without a basic knowledge of finance.  The design of the program begins with an introduction to financial literacy, which includes a pre-test to assess the students’ knowledge of financial literacy.  After completing each module students must be pass a multiple choice test with a score 80% or better before advancing to the next module.  The program randomly selects questions and their multiple-choice answers so that students cannot copy down answers to pass each test without reviewing the modules again.  Instead of a posttest, the questions that are asked throughout the six module tests serve as comparison questions for the pre test instead of students taking a separate posttest.  <Click on this link to downlad the best education practice.>