Economic Education & Financial Literacy Resources

Bank On North Carolina

Bank On North Carolina is a collaboration between financial institutions, community-based organizations and local government to ensure that all residents have the opportunity to be financially healthy. Together, we are working to connect people to safe, affordable, and certified banking accounts. Our members also offer services and educational resources that help empower people and families to improve their financial capability, health and independence.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

EconEdLink

EconEdLink is the highly-rated go-to-place for K-12 economics and personal finance resources, providing high-quality lesson plans, videos, assessments, activities, professional development webinars, and more for educators. EconEdLink is brought to you by the Council for Economic Education. The Internet-based lessons are targeted for K-12 teachers and their students. Many of the lessons include a teacher’s version as well as a student’s version. Each of the lessons are designed to be delivered in a variety of formats and classroom settings.

Econiful

Econiful’s mission is to strengthen economic education at the secondary level so that all students are able to apply economic principles in their personal, professional, and civic lives. They strive to achieve our mission by offering economic educators innovative high school lesson plans and free virtual professional development programs.

EPF Course Guide

NCCEE conducted 40-hour professional development sessions this summer to prepare educators across the state of North Carolina to teach the new Economics and Personal Finance (EPF) course. As a requirement of the 2020 EPF Summer Institute PD, teachers were tasked with creating lesson plans based on their assigned standard and objective. This resource table including a suggested pacing guide is the product of their efforts.

The document features over 300 lesson plans designed by educators and combines numerous resources. Each lesson was curated to ensure that the following components are included: a bell ringer, video, article, podcast, independent work, assessment, exit tickets, and instructions on how to deliver the content both in person and virtually. Click on the EPF Course Guide to access a pacing guide, lesson plans and more.

Federal Reserve Education

Federal Reserve Education (FRE) is a collaborative group of experienced educators from across the Federal Reserve System. Together, we are committed to making economic and financial concepts accessible, relevant, and empowering for learners of all ages. They provide classroom resources and professional development designed to support educators and engage students in meaningful learning about:

• Economics: Developing a solid foundation of economic principles and their practical applications.
• The Federal Reserve: Exploring how the Fed promotes economic stability and growth.
• Personal Finance: Building financial literacy skills for informed decision-making.

Check out Invest in What’s Next and Beyond the Bet: The Economics of Gambling lesson plans!

Financial Fitness for Life

Financial Fitness for Life® (FFFL) provides high-quality instructional materials for use with students from kindergarten to grade 12. These materials are presented in separate publications for four grade levels (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12); within the grade levels, lessons are clustered in themes. The overarching goal of the materials is to help students make thoughtful, well-informed decisions about important aspects of personal finance, including earning income, spending, saving, borrowing, investing, and managing money.

The Fiscal Ship Game

The Fiscal Ship challenges you to put the federal budget on a sustainable course. Measured as a share of gross domestic product, the federal debt is higher than at any time since the end of World War II and projected to climb to unprecedented levels. America is looking at a permanent, growing mismatch between revenues and spending, and policymakers are faced with difficult decisions about how to reconcile important government priorities—including retirement and health benefits promised to the growing number of old folks—with the tax revenues that the current tax code will yield. Today’s tax code won’t yield enough revenue to pay for basic services of government plus the retirement and health benefits promised to the growing number of old folks. So your mission is to pick from a menu of tax and spending options to reduce the debt from projected levels over the next 25 years. Small changes to spending and taxes won’t suffice. The choices are difficult, but the goal is achievable.

But budget decisions aren’t only about fiscal sustainability. They also shape the kind of country we live in. To win the game, you need to find a combination of policies that match your values and priorities AND set the budget on a sustainable course.

Foundation for Economic Education

FEE’s mission is to inspire, educate, and connect future leaders with the economic, ethical, and legal principles of a free society.

These principles include: individual liberty, free-market economics, entrepreneurship, private property, high moral character, and limited government.

Foundation for Teaching Economics

Established in 1975, the Foundation for Teaching Economics’ mission is to introduce young individuals to an economic way of thinking about national and international issues, and to promote excellence in economic education by helping teachers of economics become more effective educators.  FTE focuses its efforts on the secondary education level and provides programs and teaching resources which target primarily, but not exclusively, the social studies curriculum.

FTE is known nationally for its emphasis on active learning and the engaging activities and lessons used to teach economics.  All lessons and programs are correlated with both the Common Core state standards and all 50 standards in economic education.

A unique feature of FTE student programs is the integration of economics content with leadership development.  Participants learn to use economic reasoning skills as part of their decision-making process.

Intuit for Education

Intuit for Education provides high school and college students with FREE curriculum and tools to develop financial literacy, capability, and confidence for personal and professional success.

Marginal Revolution University

MRU helps econ and personal finance teachers shine by providing them with easy-to-use teaching resources (lesson plans, videos, news articles, interactive practice, etc.) that apply cognitive science to boost learning outcomes.

They help individual learners (whether or not they’re currently in a formal econ class) increase their knowledge and understanding by providing them with engaging video and interactive lessons developed by leading academic economists.

They do this all at no cost to teachers or learners because better economic thinking can make a better world, one small step at a time.

Money Smart for Young People

FDIC Money Smart for Young People features four free age-appropriate curricula that promote financial understanding and are specifically designed for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade educators. Each curriculum includes:

Next Gen Personal Finance

Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) is a nonprofit organization providing free curriculum and professional development resources that help teachers bring engaging, real-world money lessons to their classrooms.

NGPF’s modern, teacher-friendly curriculum connects personal finance concepts to students’ lives through interactive lessons, games, and projects. With our ready-to-teach personal finance courses aligned to state standards and customizable materials, educators can confidently deliver meaningful instruction right away. Through comprehensive professional development, teachers have completed more than 570,000 hours of training, building confidence and community alongside 130,000+ fellow educators nationwide.

Explore NGPF.org for free curriculum and resources, or visit NGPF PD to discover upcoming professional development opportunities.

NC Careers

NCcareers.org aims to be North Carolina’s central online resource for students, parents, educators, job seekers and career counselors looking for high quality job and career information. Within NCcareers.org, users will identify their skills/interests; explore occupations and local job/employer needs; identify education and training opportunities and prepare to enter/re-enter the job market. The system provides clear, consistent information about North Carolina’s current and future job needs and education/training offerings to all, starting with students in middle school and continuing through adulthood.

Stock Market Game

The Stock Market Game™ (SMG) gives students the chance to invest a hypothetical $100,000 in a real-time portfolio while they compete against their peers across the state. They think they’re playing a game. We know they’re utilizing technology to improve math scores and learn economic, financial, and business concepts all while building 21st century skills that will last a lifetime. Follow up the SMG experience by entering InvestWrite, a national essay competition which adds a language arts and critical thinking component to the SMG experience.

To learn more about the SMG program, free workshops and webinars for teachers new to the program, click on workshops.

Tax Foundation

Animated explainer videos are designed for the classroom, social media, and anyone looking to boost their tax knowledge on the go.

Treasurer Newsletter- Finance Fridays

Finance Fridays is a publication of the NC Department of State Treasurer. Treasurer Brad Briner is focused on preserving, protecting, and sustaining the state’s pension and healthcare plans. Briner was most recently the Co-Chief Investment Officer for Willett Advisors and has held positions at Morgan Creek Capital, the UNC Management Company, ArcLight Capital, and Goldman Sachs.