The Jump$tart Coalition^® for Personal Financial Literacy’s fourth biennial survey found that high school seniors may have begun to turn the corner on their way to better financial management skills and education. For the first time since 1997, students demonstrated an increased aptitude and ability to manage financial resources such as credit cards, insurance, retirement funds and savings accounts.  

On average, students who participated in the 2004 survey answered 52.3 percent of the questions correctly. That score is up from 50.2 percent in 2002 and 51.9 percent in 2000. Although, it should be noted that 65.5 percent of students still failed this exam, based upon a typical scale used by many public schools around the nation; in addition, the modest gains of 2004 did not match the 1997 levels of 57.3 percent.  

Jump$tart’s comprehensive survey of more than 4,000 high school students in 215 high schools spread across 33 states, measured 12^th graders’ knowledge level of personal finance basics, and compared the results to the survey conducted in 2002, 2000 and 1997. The surveys were administered in classes that did not focus on finance or economics—in English or History classes, for example—to ensure a cross section of students who may or may not have had previous exposure to financial learning. 

Survey questions were divided into four categories: income, money management, saving and spending. The students did a far better job of answering questions about income (getting 62.9 percent of these questions right) and spending (55.4 percent) than they did about money management and saving (45.4 percent and 41.0 percent, respectively).  

Those students required to attend money management courses in high school fared better than others. To be specific, the students attending required classes scored better (54.1 percent) than those at schools where it was required only for some students (50.5 percent) and those where money management classes were electives (52.7 percent). 

Parental involvement also continued to play a significant role in the financial education of young people. The vast majority of the participants said they learn most of their money management skills at home—58.3 percent. That compares to 19.5 percent who said they learn such skills at school and 17.6 percent from experience. 

While there was virtually no difference by gender—male students answered 52.4 percent of the questions correctly versus an average of 52.2 for females —there were significant differences based on geography and race. The average score for Caucasian students was 55.5 percent, compared with 48.3 percent for Asian Americans, 48.3 percent for Hispanics, 46.7 percent for Native Americans and 44.0 percent for African Americans. While there were significant differences between groups, no one group scored at even the “D” grade level.  

Students from the Northeast did better (answering 56.5 percent of the questions correctly) versus the Midwest (52.4), West (52.2 percent), and South (49.9). T

he researcher for all four studies was Lewis Mandell, Ph.D., professor of finance and managerial economics at the University Of Buffalo School Of Management. The survey’s underwriter was Merrill Lynch.
 

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