Financial Education
Understanding how to manage your money is an essential life skill. Yet, many are not given the opportunity to receive personal finance education.
Worse yet, as a society, we are being forced to take more ownership of our financial futures. Long gone are the days of companies providing a pension and in are the days of endless offers to take on debt.
We provide a multitude of services to bring financial education to your audience.
Curriculum
Development
North Starr’s team has twenty years of experience developing personal finance programming.
We will work with you to understand the needs of your audience and customize content to contribute to their financial knowledge and capabilities, and ultimately contribute to their financial well-being.
Culturally Responsive
Content is filtered through Culturally Responsive Teaching and Social & Emotional Learning best practices. Culturally Responsive Financial Education provides a more impactful learning experience by taking a human-centered approach to education.
Since the term financial literacy became more commonly used, we have come to understand it is not just necessary to increase one’s knowledge (literacy), we also need to acknowledge the multitude of factors that go into one’s financial well-being.
Aligned to National Standards
We align content to national standards jointly developed by The National Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy and The Council for Economic Education.
Additionally, several states have personal finance educational standards, which we can also align content to.
Update Curriculum
Personal finance information is ever-changing and requires more effort to keep up-to-date than other subjects.
We can bring your existing content up to date with the most current personal finance information. Additionally, we can provide recommendations to make your content more culturally responsive.
Evaluation
Our team will develop evaluation tools to measure the impact of the content.
Culturally Responsive Education
Financial Well-Being
Since the term financial literacy became more commonly used, we have come to understand it is not just necessary to increase one’s knowledge (literacy), we also need to acknowledge the multitude of factors that go into one’s financial well-being.
According to the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), financial well-being is an ever-changing, personal state that typically includes factors such as satisfactorily managing one’s current financial situation, the ability to exercise choice and feel in control of finances; and the outlook for future prospects. NEFE further explains the factors that contribute to one’s financial well-being with the Personal Finance Ecosystem.
Culturally Responsive Education
According to the National Equity Project, Culturally Responsive Education (CRE) incorporatesand centers unique student experiences and identities, supporting educators to build partnerships that result in increased student engagement and ownership of learning.
Components of CRE include affirmation, validation, cognition, and processing.
Incorporating CRE:
● Ensures marginalized and minoritized people are represented in the content,
● Identifies and addresses the layers of systemic oppressions target populations face,
● Provides collectivist versus individualistic responsibility of other cultures,
● Advocates for self, community, and systemic change, and
● Provides awareness and acknowledgement of facilitator biases, privileges, and blind spots.
Social & Emotional Learning
According to CASEL, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the mindsets, knowledge, skills, and attitudes to
develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
SEL competencies include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
Incorporating SEL:
● Develops the underlying social, emotional, cognitive, and psychological mindsets, skills, and attitudes that support financial education and wellness while developing the whole person,
● Bridges the gap between financial education content and the learner by ensuring a
human-centered approach to financial education, and
● Is a wise financial investment: $11 return on investment due to savings benefits at the personal, interpersonal, organizational, and societal levels.
Process
CRE and SEL implemented together provides a more impactful learning experience. North Starr develops and reviews curriculum through a CRE and SEL lens to better connect the curriculum to the learner.
● Use of Wording- Wording choice is important because every word and action sends an explicit or implicit message. Often our choice of words unintentionally communicate judgment and limiting messages.
● Images and Illustrations- A picture is worth a thousand words. Make sure your images and illustrations enhance your message and not turn away learners.
● Use of Examples- Carefully choose use of examples that will resonate with diverse audiences.
● Instructional Methods- Gone are the days of lecture-based instruction. It is important to incorporate varied learning activities to reinforce lessons.
● Train Instructors- It is important that instructors are trained on how to best incorporate these practices when delivering lessons
Speaking Engagements
We can present directly to your audience or provide train-the-trainer sessions. We can pull from our existing bank of presentations or work with you to customize a presentation for your audience.
Presentation Topics:
● Behavioral Finance
● Culturally Responsive Financial Education
● Incorporating Social & Emotional Learning Into Financial Education
● How to engage your audience
● Understanding the Personal Finance Ecosystem
● Customized presentations on a multitude of personal finance topics
● Train-the-Trainer
College Student
"Because of this [class], I am taking more finance classes.
Elementary Teacher
"My students looked forward to these highly engaging lessons each day! No dry lessons here!"
College Student
"I got way more out of this class than I anticipated."