Financial Literacy Curriculum

At the Cleveland Fed, we provide educational opportunities and resources for all students to understand finance and the economy. We have three financial literacy guides available for students in high school, middle school, and elementary school.

Our guides contain resources drawn from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’s Econ Lowdown®, other Federal Reserve websites, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

All curriculum guides are aligned to Ohio's Model Financial Literacy Curriculum.

Financial Literacy Curriculum Guides

High School

This guide focuses on financial literacy for high school students and spans 18 weeks (1 semester) and is divided into 3-week-long units covering six topics. Each topic’s content statement has been scaffolded so that new subject matter builds on concepts previously covered. Learning expectations are found under each day's lesson selection. Lesson plans, along with supporting resources, including videos, podcasts, learning modules, and readings, are available in this PDF version and on Econ Lowdown as a teacher syllabus.

• financial responsibility and decision making
• planning and money management
• informed consumer
• investing
• credit and debt
• risk management and insurance

Middle School - NEW

This resource guide focuses on financial literacy for middle school students and is divided into the six topic strands and further broken down by each content statement. Resources have been selected to best meet learning expectations.

• financial responsibility and decision making
• planning and money management
• informed consumer
• investing
• credit and debt
• risk management and insurance

Elementary School - NEW

This resource guide focuses on financial literacy for elementary students and is divided into the suggested grade bands (K–3 and 4–6). Each grade band’s guide is divided by the five topic strands and further broken down by each content statement. Some resources will be repeated under both grade bands, so educators are encouraged to use the resources they feel are best suited for their classroom.

• financial responsibility and decision making
• planning and money management
• informed consumer
• credit and debt
• risk management and insurance

How to use Econ Lowdown

Many of the resources that are used in these curriculum guides are from Econ Lowdown, an award-winning free economic education portal for teachers and students by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Educators can also access the entire Cleveland Fed high school guide on this platform.

Once class and student accounts are created on Econ Lowdown, teachers can select lessons and other materials and track student progress using the online teacher portal. For a more tailored experience, teachers can select which resources to assign and which ones to delete when using the high school guide within the Econ Lowdown platform.

View instructions on how to use Econ Lowdown and to create the free accounts needed for students to access the digital resources.