Pathway to Financial Success in Schools

Teachers, middle and high school students, and families get printable activities, videos, and online resources to learn about and practice healthy financial habits with Pathway to Financial Success in Schools. The web-based programs are split into two levels. Middle school teachers are presented with a six-unit course that is geared toward students who may just be starting to understand how debt and savings work. Activities employ group work, technology, and conversations to engage a middle school mind to begin thinking about their financial responsibility and how to prepare for the future. 

The high school level hands the reins to the students themselves, as they can participate in an interactive, self-paced course. The resources for these eight units include self-paced modules, classroom activities, and loads of online resources. Learning Tools for Families offers terrific take-home ideas -- from activities families can do together to learn about good habits to how to start discussions about financial health.

Pathway to Financial Success in Schools offers a strong program for varying ages. These lessons were designed with real teaching in mind, engaging students in discussion, movement, challenges (The Stock Market Game), and classroom strategies like Jigsaw Classroom, a technique for cooperative learning. The two programs present lessons on budgeting, career planning, investing, and making major purchases and are leveled nicely to address the varying developmental needs of middle and high school students. Middle school students define and explore concepts often in group activities, allowing for productive conversations. The self-paced modules in the high school program break the information into manageable pieces that are perfect for independent learning. Older students are given more detailed, specific tasks that relate to their more immediate future decisions regardless of whether students are looking toward college or preparing to join the workforce after graduation.

The biggest downsides: Modules must be completed in one sitting, and if a student leaves the site, the module restarts back at the first activity and must be completed again to receive a certificate. Also, not having complicated logins or apps to download is great, but without a student account, teachers cannot view student progress or scores. And since there's no support for multiple languages, it won't be accessible to all students. However, in terms of making financial literacy relevant to kids, Pathway to Financial Success in Schools does a solid job of making a potentially intimidating array of topics interesting and transferrable to kids' lives.