Financial Education in High School

Abstract

Abstract This chapter argues that high school students are sorely in need of financial knowledge. Students who took courses in financial management or personal finance did not do any better on financial literacy tests than students who did not take any such course. The chapter finds that financially literate high school seniors are disproportionately white, male, and the children of well-educated parents. Financial knowledge is linked to self-beneficial financial practices. A strong and monotonic relationship between financial literacy scores and parents' education is also observed. Differences in financial literacy seem to be more closely connected to race than to any other demographic variable. There is no evidence that common methods of parental involvement result in a significant improvement to the financial literacy of high school seniors. Those who have played a stock market game in class are 2 percentage points more likely to be financially literate.

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