Networks Matter - Financial Literacy Education

Networks matter. You may have experienced this on the job market or elsewhere. Knowing someone at a company can help you have a better understanding of what it is like to work at that company. This information can also improve your chances of success when applying for a job at that company because you can better prepare your application or possibly receive an internal recommendation. This same idea applies to financial education.

A 2021 paper by Allison Oldham Luedtke and Carly Urban investigates how financial education policies at schools affect nearby schools. This research finds that high schools are more likely to require or offer financial education courses similar to those of their peer schools. If a school without financial education is near a school with financial education, the school without is more likely to change their curriculum to incorporate it. This finding is valuable to thinking about the broader implications of financial education.

A professional learning network (PLN) is a group of teachers who connect to share and learn. Prenger et al (2021) shows that a PLN influences outcomes such as teacher learning. This research also shows “how leadership, the perception of a shared goal, structured activities, collaboration, and facilitation and support especially appear to influence outcomes.”

These two papers show that connecting people matters. We are looking to do the same! We are developing a PLN, the Kentucky Financial Educators Network. While still in development, click here to learn more about the Kentucky Financial Educators Network.

We are looking for contributors to our newsletter as well. Do you have a story about how financial literacy has impacted your life or financial advice you wish you would have had earlier in life? Let us know! Fill out the form here and become a contributor to our newsletter.