Assessing Financial Literacy

Abstract

How do you know if students are benefiting from financial education? The answer requires an assessment of financial literacy. Ideally, a financial literacy assessment would take place before and after the administration of a financial education program to gauge improvement in human capital specific to personal finance. While there are certainly a multitude of educational approaches available for enhancing financial literacy, the human capital improvement we are trying to measure is less variable in nature. This chapter focuses on the usefulness of assessing financial literacy along with the various elements to be considered in the measure, including the context, concept, content, instrument creation, and implementation.