Financial literacy in the middle school curriculum
Secular Content: Yes
Number of Lessons: 43
Number of Assessments: 38
Certificates of Achievement: Yes
Approximate Time to Complete the Course: 20 - 25 hours
Level: Age appropriate for 10 - 14 years old (grades 5-9, depending on the country)
Despite being an important life skill for all people, financial literacy is not treated as a stand-alone subject in most countries’ curriculum, instead it is incorporated in other subjects.
So, in order to provide maximum flexibility for teachers, MoneyTime contains equal amounts of literacy (reading, vocabulary, and comprehension), math and social education. This means it can comfortably be used as a cross curricular resource in any of these subjects.
Class fits include: Math, Social Studies, Economics, Business Studies, Enterprise, Career Readiness, and Consumer Science.
When reading country specific curriculum fit below, it should be noted MoneyTime goes beyond the financial literacy standards and requirements set out in most education department curriculum. It covers topics we think students should know about in order to develop into financially knowledgeable and confident adults. For example: resumes, applying for a job, rent or buy, mortgages, buying property, property investment, insurance and warranties. All at an appropriate level for 10-14 years old. We think it is important these become opportunities they expect to deal with and make use of, not be overawed by.
Financial literacy in the American Curriculum
School districts typically follow the Common Core Standards created and promoted by the Department of Education or those of their own State Education Department.
In both instances the financial literacy standards typically referred to are:
Council For Economic Education’s (CEE) National Standards for Financial Literacy
Jump$tart Coalition’s National Standards for K-12 Personal Finance Education.
National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies
MoneyTime’s content incorporates the majority of standards in each of these as well as most state academic standards.
Levels: MoneyTime is appropriate for US grades 5 to 8.
Financial literacy in the Australian Curriculum
MoneyTime satisfies the financial literacy requirements of the Australian curriculum (ACARA, version 9.0) which requires a cross curricular approach, with various components to be taught in mathematics, HASS and economics & business. MoneyTime also maps the Consumer and Financial Literacy Framework, which provides a progression of financial literacy learning from the first year of school through to senior secondary.
Levels: MoneyTime is appropriate for AUS years 5 to 8.
Financial literacy in the South African Curriculum
The South African curriculum is called the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). Within CAPS, financial literacy is not treated as a stand alone subject. Financial literacy falls under Maths for Grades 4-6 and in Economic Management And Sciences (EMS) for Grades 7-9
Maths Grades 4-6 simply uses money as a subject for arithmetic problems
Within EMS Grade 7, MoneyTime covers:
Savings (purpose of savings; the role of banks; services offered by banks; opening a savings account at a bank)
Budgets
Income and expenditure
Needs and wants
Functions of a business
Goods and services
The concept of advertising
Levels: MoneyTime is appropriate for SA grades 5 to 8.
Financial literacy in the New Zealand Curriculum
MoneyTime has been designed from the outset to align with levels 3,4,5 in the Financial Capability Progressions (Word 2007, 52 KB)
Levels: MoneyTime is appropriate for NZ years 7-10