NEFE Updates Curriculum

ENGLEWOOD, COLO. - The 2007 edition of the NEFE High School Financial Planning Program (HSFPP) has now been delivered to the national network of representatives involved in the program and who are responsible for educating America's youth on their finances. During a four-day meeting here, the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) convened more than 130 individuals from their two HSFPP partners, CUNA and the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service and Participating Land-Grant University Cooperative Extension Services.

Attendees at the High School Program kick-off event were introduced to all the components of the new HSFPP, shared strategies for launching the program in their states and received instruction on how to train high school teachers to deliver the program.

"With this edition, the NEFE High School Financial Planning Program has undergone the most extensive revision in the curriculum's history," said John Parfrey, director of the HSFPP. "This updated program has an attractive new look and feel, writing that is perfectly calibrated to teens, and multiple websites for students, parents, and teachers. After 18 months and thousands of hours of hard work by dozens of people, we feel we have created a program that can really help the nation's youth to adopt positive financial behaviors to start them on a life-long path of financial responsibility."

According to organizers, the new curriculum has been linked to education standards in 50 states, as well as to several national subject-area standards. In addition, the instructional design incorporates principles of multiple-intelligence and continuous learning. The goal is to take knowledge beyond the classroom. "The new HSFPP will accomplish this by engaging families and financial professionals to help students move from classroom lessons to action in the real world," the groups said. "For example, rather than a student merely knowing what a checking account is, the student and parent might go to a credit union or bank and set up a checking account for the teen. Or, instead of simply reading about budgets, the student will actually create a monthly budget with the assistance of a financial professional volunteering in the classroom."

The High School Financial Planning Program has now reached more than five-million students in all 50 states since its inception in 1984.