Bringing Equity to the Classroom With Financial Literacy

Purpose & objective

The purpose of this session is to equip educators with the tools they need to address issues of equity through educational activities. Educators and Educator leaders will explore the connections of financial literacy, social justice and responsibility to equity, and the ways this impacts students in their communities. Together, we will identify the ways that students can build their social emotional awareness through financial literacy education. We will collaborate to create a strategic plan to address educational inequities after reflecting on data shared by our experts. This plan will include thinking through what this looks like in their own community, a timeline for integration, identifying resources to support their goals. Finally, Educators and Education leaders will create a framework for addressing equity issues through financial literacy within their school community, identifying the activities, policies, and culture shifts needed to be successful. Educators will walk away having developed a plan to address financial literacy education that is action-forward and focused on student empowerment.

Participants will be able to define the issues of equity that currently exist in their school community and those that their students may potentially face in the future. Participants will create a lesson plan and/or unit plan that empowers student learners and builds the connections between financial literacy and life success. Participants will also understand and develop a framework for their school community and understanding how to effect change from the bottom up.

This session will be based off of EVERFI’s own research and the curriculum design of our financial literacy suite of resources, but will not require the use of EVERFI’s content for educators to be successful. This includes the elementary school resource, Vault: Understanding Money, the middle school resource FutureSmart, the high school financial literacy resources, EVERFI: Financial Literacy, Pathways: Financing Higher Education, and Money Moves: Modern Banking & Identity Protection.

The successes of these resources has been illustrated in several published research studies thus far, including From Financial Literacy to Financial Capability (https://everfi.com/white-papers/k-12/from-financial-literacy-to-financial-capability/) and The Personalization Difference (https://everfi.com/white-papers/financial-education/the-personalization-difference/). We are also excited to be bringing our latest research to this session, with a study that will be wrapping up at the end of the 2020-2021 school year.

Outline

Introductions & Housekeeping (5 min.)
Understanding the data: the state of financial literacy (10 min)
Exploring a pedagogy for financial literacy & the impact of financial education on social justice (10 min)
Peer-to-peer interaction, identifying issues of equity (10 min)
Grade-level grouping, crafting your approach to financial literacy (20 min)
Project share-outs - all projects to be added to crowd-sourced location (10 min)
Exploring a framework for effecting positive change from the ground up (5 min)
Groupings by role, discussing localized approaches and sharing best practices (10 min)
Whole-group share out (5 min)
Session end and wrap-up (5 min).

Supporting research

Financial Literacy to Financial Capability (https://everfi.com/white-papers/k-12/from-financial-literacy-to-financial-capability/) and The Personalization Difference (https://everfi.com/white-papers/financial-education/the-personalization-difference/). We are also excited to be bringing our latest research to this session, with a study that will be wrapping up at the end of the 2020-2021 school year.