Standards and Mandates
Every student should receive a responsive and sustaining financial education that promotes and supports personal and community financial health and wellness.
Financial Education Requirement
In Chicago Public Schools, the Illinois State requirement for Consumer Education is met through a required 9 sequential week unit of Financial Education instruction for all high school students.
Our commitment does not end with the required unit but extends to support elementary schools interested in integrating the K-8 Financial Literacy standards, providing models for stand-alone full semester and year-long Financial Education courses in high school, and identifying partners and facilitating meaningful and beneficial experiential learning relationships with schools and their communities.
Empowered! can be used as a resource to satisfy the Chicago Public Schools Minimum High School Graduation Requirement and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Consumer Education Graduation Requirement. Please feel free to review CPS’s Financial Education implementation guidance for further information, or download the entire Financial Education Graduation Policy Implementation Guidance document for more information.
- Cadence: A unit of study in financial education is 9 weeks of sequential lessons.
- Content: A unit of study in financial education covers each of the Seven Core Areas of Financial Education. The Seven Core Areas are Economic Concepts, Money Management, Banking, Credit, Insurance, Investing and Consumer Protection.
- Courses: The unit of study can be taught as a stand-alone course OR be integrated into any of the following subject areas/programs: Social Science*, Math, Career and Technical Education (Business), JROTC, or Post-Secondary Counseling. Examples include a year long Civics course, Financial Algebra, Senior Seminar, Junior Seminar, and Exploring Computer Science.
*If you are implementing the Financial Education requirement in Civics, please note the following: HB 4025 requires a minimum of one semester of Civics instruction. Schools can implement the Financial Education unit in one full-year course only in order to meet both requirements. Please contact Heather Van Benthuysen for more information.
FinEd Alumni Highlight: Johnathan Baker
Fenger Academy High School, Class of 2014
Share the most impactful Financial Education experience you’ve had, and why?
"We did an exercise where we learned how to play around with money and purchasing goods. We had our own play money, our own property, and we were exchanging/trading goods to learn how money fluctuates. It was so significant to me because I’m an entrepreneur, I just started my small business. Being a small business owner, having income and expenses, I need to know what’s good to get into business and what’s not. So that class and exercise really showed me to invest money into myself, and create the same pattern/flow that the US is having. We have to bring a lot of awareness to financial literacy because if not, we’ll be spending our money without thinking."
High-Quality Financial Education
The characteristics of high-quality financial education are that it be:
- Culturally relevant: Embrace and partner with students to ensure that the curriculum and instructional practices are responsive to and sustain the vibrant, rich cultures of our students and communities.
- Standards aligned: Meet IL state statute regarding the consumer education graduation requirement and be aligned to ISBE Social Science Standards for Economics & Financial Literacy.
- Inquiry-based: Learners practice critical thinking, investigation, exploration, and research - they use and seek a variety of sources, evaluate credibility and bias, and make judgments and conclusions.
Download the entire Financial Education Graduation Policy Implementation Guidance document for more information.