Financial Scholars is a nonprofit organization that partners with public high schools to move personal finance education from basic course access to lasting impact. Founded in Philadelphia in 2020 and later expanding into Connecticut, Financial Scholars combines national curriculum resources, including Next Gen Personal Finance, with localized, district-partnered implementation support. The organization focuses on creating the essential conditions for strong instruction, teacher confidence, student learning, and long-term school adoption.
With over 30 states now requiring a standalone personal finance course, high school financial education is experiencing major national policy momentum. However, mandates alone do not train teachers, align assessments, create implementation plans, or ensure real-world relevance. Financial Scholars addresses this critical gap by providing the teacher support, curriculum alignment, data, enrichment, and partnership infrastructure needed to deliver high-quality, consistent, and impactful instruction that builds students' financial knowledge and decision-making confidence before adulthood.
While more schools are required to offer personal finance, implementation conditions vary widely. Teachers come from diverse certification backgrounds (such as business, math, social studies, and home economics) and often lack dedicated materials, culturally relevant support, professional learning, or standardized assessments for this newly mandated subject. Financial Scholars moves beyond simple curriculum links or one-time trainings to solve key operational questions:
• Staffing & curriculum: Identifying who will teach the course and setting a clear scope and sequence.
• Training & assessment: Providing ongoing teacher support and aligned student assessments.
• Application & sustainability: Connecting instruction to students' real-world decisions and building durable school-level systems to sustain quality over time.
Financial Scholars treats teachers as professional partners by offering ongoing, content-specific support. Key services include:
• Summer professional development and responsive monthly Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)
• One-on-one co-planning, coaching, feedback, and classroom implementation guidance
• Scope and sequence alignment and targeted student assessments
Grounded in research showing that collaborative, content-focused professional development directly improves instruction and student outcomes, this teacher-first approach builds content knowledge, practical strategies, self-efficacy, and a strong peer network.
Financial Scholars is an implementation partner, not a curriculum provider. Rather than simply distributing materials, Financial Scholars pairs trusted national resources (like Next Gen Personal Finance) with hands-on, localized district support. The organization focuses on the "how" of financial education: preparing teachers, adapting lessons, measuring learning, involving families, and using a growing dataset to analyze how teacher support correlates with student success. This integrated approach connects classroom instruction with career exposure and family empowerment to ensure compliance translates into durable, high-quality learning.
The model is built on four interconnected, locally adaptable areas of support:
• Course design & curriculum support: Establishing a coherent scope and sequence, aligned assessments, and practical classroom resources.
• Teacher professional learning: Delivering summer PD, monthly PLCs, one-on-one co-planning, and continuous implementation support.
• Student enrichment & career exposure: Offering real-world applications through investing programs, simulations, entrepreneurship, and workplace experiences.
• Family financial empowerment: Extending education to the community through adult workshops on practical financial topics.
Together, these components create a teacher-first, school-centered, and data-informed model designed for sustainable impact.
Financial Scholars serves public high schools, teachers, students, families, and school communities, with a special focus on expanding access to high-quality financial education in under-resourced schools. Currently operating across Philadelphia and Connecticut, Financial Scholars is developing a respectful, community-centered regional model with national application.
Financial Scholars has supported thousands of students and over 100 teachers across two states, growing from ~7,500 students and 112 teachers in SY2025–26 to over 10,000 students and 150 teachers in SY2026–27. Key impact metrics include:
• Knowledge growth: A pre- to post-assessment average increase of 60% in student financial knowledge.
• Holistic tracking: Comprehensive evaluation of student confidence with financial skills, teacher development hours, engagement, and implementation indicators.
• Research investment: Ongoing evaluation to pinpoint which specific teacher supports drive the strongest implementation and student learning gains.
Financial Scholars leverages a rich dataset—including teacher confidence metrics, engagement dosage, classroom observations, student assessments/surveys, focus groups, and district administrative data—to continuously refine implementation. To ensure rigorous, independent evaluation, Financial Scholars partners with ImpactED at the University of Pennsylvania, which leads the research design, analysis, and interpretation examining how teacher support and confidence influence instructional quality and student outcomes.
Personal finance is practical, values-laden, culturally contextual, and often newly mandated, yet teachers assigned to the subject come from widely varied academic backgrounds. Content-specific, sustained, and collaborative PD builds teacher confidence, which directly shapes instructional quality and student success. Financial Scholars bridges existing field-wide research gaps by combining tailored PD, curriculum support, PLCs, and implementation tracking, offering a scalable, practical blueprint as more states enact financial literacy mandates.
Financial Scholars extends learning beyond standard course time through two key pathways:
• Student enrichment: Connecting students with corporate volunteers, industry professionals, investing programs, simulations, and career exposure to help them see themselves as capable financial decision-makers and professionals.
• Family empowerment: Hosting adult workshops for caregivers and community members covering major financial milestones, including banking, budgeting, credit, taxes, homebuying, insurance, and FAFSA completion.
Following a 2021 landscape analysis, Financial Scholars selected Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) as the most comprehensive, high-quality personal finance curriculum available. Rather than creating a competing curriculum, Financial Scholars leverages NGPF's free, best-in-class instructional materials while serving as the localized implementation partner that ensures effective classroom delivery.
Financial Scholars curates NGPF content into practical semester- and year-long scopes and sequences, adding key implementation layers: teacher onboarding, ongoing PD, pacing support, PLCs, school-based coaching, student enrichment, local resources, and family empowerment. This replicable model pairs a leading national curriculum provider with local, philanthropically supported infrastructure—allowing schools to deliver exceptional personal finance education without building from scratch.
Financial Scholars achieves quality at scale through a regional implementation model rather than a one-size-fits-all program:
• Adaptable core infrastructure: Standardized curriculum planning, teacher tools, assessment frameworks, and data systems are built once and adapted locally, creating operational efficiencies as networks mature.
• Peer-led network effects: Experienced teacher partners mentor new educators, returning teachers strengthen PLCs, and shared assessments eliminate duplicated effort.
• Train-the-trainer growth: Prepares local instructional leaders and regional staff to onboard new schools, reducing reliance on central staff while preserving high standards.
• Strategic expansion: Scales intentionally where policy momentum, school demand, local partnerships, philanthropic funding, and implementation capacity align.
Financial Scholars offers corporate and foundation partners a high-quality opportunity to invest in economic mobility, workforce readiness, and public education infrastructure. Partners can support school implementation through:
• Regional expansion, data systems, and research/evaluation.
• Funding teacher PD, student enrichment, or family financial workshops.
• Engaging employees through corporate volunteering, career exposure, and workplace learning experiences.
Schools and districts can partner with Financial Scholars to launch, strengthen, or scale their personal finance offerings. Financial Scholars collaborates directly with administrators and educators to evaluate local context and provide comprehensive support—including teacher training, curriculum alignment, PLCs, coaching, assessments, student enrichment, and family workshops—building a sustainable foundation for long-term success. Interested leaders can connect with Financial Scholars to discuss readiness and implementation goals.
“Financial Scholars has shaped my confidence, my career direction, and the opportunities I have today. They believed in me and invested in my potential.”
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