Check Your School                                                     

Check Your School is a public-engagement campaign designed to support the goals of Jump$tart’s Project Groundswell: to increase and improve financial education in our nation’s classrooms. Through the Check Your School campaign and this website, we hope to harness the “power of parents” to start the conversation about the importance of financial literacy and the need for financial education at their own kids’ schools.  But you don’t need to be a parent to help. Grandparents, guardians, aunts,  uncles, neighbors, friends, and even students themselves have a role to play—and we have a toolkit to help you do it. Check out these important links at CheckYourSchool.org:

• Check your school
• Essential Elements of Financial Education
  
• Advocacy Toolkit
• Implementation Toolkit
• Student Toolkit
• Contact your school
• Have a question? Check out our FAQs!

FOR PARENTS

When parents talk, everyone – including teachers, principals, and other school administrators – listen.  So, if you’re here because you agree that students across our country deserve effective classroom-based financial education, we could use your help!

Jump$tart’s Project Groundswell and Check Your School campaign are designed to harness the power of parents to introduce and improve financial education in school. And not just traditional parents and guardians, but grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors, and any other adults who care about local kids and their community.

What can parents do?

First, check your school.

Next, check at your school to see what you can learn about the financial education offerings there.

Then, tell us what you know and what you found out.

Most importantly, help us start the conversation:

• about bringing financial education to your school if it isn’t there already;
• about strengthening the curriculum to be as effective as it could possibly be; and
• about expanding the offerings so that students can practice and learn as they grow.

There are some great resources here to help you help us.

Financial education is most effective when reinforced at home with frank conversations and the opportunity for young people to practice what they’ve learned under their parents’ watchful eyes.  The Jump$tart Clearinghouse has financial education resources suitable for use at home, too!

FOR STUDENTS

These days, the most effective advocates for change in schools–or in the country–are the students themselves. The fact that you’re here tells us you may want to play a proactive role in ensuring that you, your classmates, and the students who come along behind you receive a sufficient education in money management before you need to start making critical decisions as adult consumers.

But how?

Many families aren’t able to provide their own kids with enough information and guidance on financial matters to fully prepare them for the complicated financial choices they’ll face after graduation. Financial education in schools benefits all students and levels the playing field for the kids who aren’t getting enough instruction at home.

Using our Student Toolkit, you’ll be well prepared to start the conversation at your own school and advocate for financial education for you and your friends. What’s more, the financial education we’re talking about is practical, interactive, geared to today’s students and today’s financial world.

Sound good? Let’s go.

FOR EDUCATORS

From the front lines, you know how important financial education is to the future of the kids you teach every day. And you’re in a unique position to help those kids get financial education early and often, so that they have the opportunity to incorporate and practice these skills before they’re attempting to manage student loans and college living expenses on their own. And we want to help you do it.

Many of you also experience the education system from both sides: as a parent and as an educator. You understand better than anyone why families and schools need to work together to overcome obstacles, pool knowledge, and connect as advocates for expanding financial education in America. But everything starts with knowing the current status of financial education in your schools. And that’s where we could really use your help.

As a parent (or grandparent, guardian, family member, friend, or neighbor), we hope you’ll start on our Parents Page and tell us about financial education at your own kids’ school. If it’s not the school where you work, you can help us start the conversation there. Your clout as a parent and your credibility as an educator are a potent combination.

As an educator, you recognize that to be effective, financial education must be start with reliable educational resources taught by qualified, confident teachers. The finance, education, and research experts on Jump$tart’s Education Committee developed Essential Elements of Effective Financial Education to help inform and inspire classroom based-financial education at all grade levels.

With that in mind, we’ve created a special Educators Toolkit with resources, best practices, and content to help you bring financial education to your school—or to improve what is presently offered.  You can also help us by using the Educators’ Add Your School form to tell us about financial education where you work. Don’t worry—it isn’t a formal reporting mechanism; if you tell us that the financial education doesn’t quite meet our essential elements, that just helps us better understand how we might be able to help.

Nearly 100 teachers from across the country offered feedback as we created this toolkit and the Check Your School campaign. But, we’re also always eager to hear from you about new ideas, brainstorm solutions to obstacles, and improve our existing materials. So feel free to contact us!

 

CONTACT INFORMATION

Anne Bannister, Clearinghouse Director
734-945-1639
Anne.Bannister@jumpstart.org