Group of young people hanging out and laughing

Impact

Building Strong Financial Futures and Economic Knowledge

Students participate in an economic and financial education program

Many students lack the basic financial skills needed to prosper in life. CEE is working to change this.

CEE provides young people the tools to make informed decisions, prepare for careers or post-secondary education and understand the economic impact of real-world events. The true effect of CEE’s wide range of economic and financial education resources exists in the ripple effects that extend across families, communities, and even future generations.

Who We Serve

CEE serves students from all walks of life and has a particular focus on ensuring that students of color, young women and those historically underserved by the financial world have equal access to financial opportunity.

Students engaged in economic and financial education

The Reach of CEE

CEE offers K-12 economic and financial education resources for all 50 states.

2 million+

Students reached by CEE programs and teachers

450,000

Unique users of EconEdLink, the premier online site for K-12 teachers

50,000

Teachers a year participate in professional development workshops nationwide

30,000

Students per year participate in CEE high school challenges

11,000+

Hours of teacher training

1,000+

Lessons, guides & activities for teachers

The Impact of CEE

We believe that supporting educators is the key to improving student learning and achievement. And studies show that our approach is working. With a foundational understanding of finance and economics, young people have the tools they need to make informed financial decisions and create a better life, not only for themselves but also for those around them. CEE is:

Diverse & Inclusive

  • Two-thirds of teachers we reach work in Title 1 schools
  • 75% of Invest in Girls participants are girls of color 
  • Over half the students who participate in the National Personal Finance Challenge are students of color

Effective at improving student knowledge

  • We saw a 350% increase in the percentage of students achieving the benchmark after taking CEE’s personal finance curriculum, Financial Fitness for Life (FFFL) in Tennessee1
  • Scores rose 41% in elementary school, 21% in middle school, and 24% in high school for students whose teachers had used FFFL in Kentucky1
  • Participation in the National Economics Challenge increases AP scores

Equipping teachers to transform lives

  • Effective teachers can generate marginal gains of more than $400,000 annually in student future earnings.3
  • When teachers know how to teach economics, students from kindergarten to high school seniors can and do learn economics and financial concepts.3

Teachers Love Our Work

Would recommend CEE webinars to colleagues

Teacher Rating1

4.8/5

Teachers Love Our Work

Webinars improve knowledge of the content area

Teacher Rating1

4.6/5

Teachers Love Our Work

Webinar provided good materials

Teacher Rating1

4.6/5

The Impact of Financial Education

State-Mandated Financial Education Makes a Difference

Student taking an economics and finance quiz

Three studies4 show consistent results: Students who have received a personal finance education make different financial choices.

  • Improved credit scores
  • Reduced default rates 
  • More likely to have a credit file
  • Less likely to have outstanding debt

Financial behaviors improve over time.

Girl saves money by putting a quarter into a coin bank

Here’s what happened to young adults three years after receiving a state-mandated education in personal finance.5

  • Severe delinquency on credit accounts or auto loans decreased up to 32%
  • Credit scores improved from 1.8% in Georgia to 5.2% in Texas 

Low-income students make better college financing choices. 

College students study together in the library

Financial education requirements help to change how students use the resources available to them.

  • They borrow more knowledgeably, shifting from high-cost to low-cost financing 
  • They apply for more aid, increasing the likelihood of receiving a grant or accepting low-interest federal loans

Giving Back

Join a community of donors, working to create equal access to financial opportunity. 

Support CEE
3 middle school girls smiling at the camera in front of their school cubbies

References

  1. Studies demonstrating the effectiveness of FFFL programs. In Tennessee, student performance (measured by % of students scoring 70% or better on a pre/post assessment) increased from 10% reaching the benchmark in the pre-test to 48% in the post-test, when taught using FFFL. In Kentucky, a study showed that for students of teachers who had been trained on FFFL, elementary students scores rose 41%, middle school scores improved 21%, and high school scores increased 24%. 
  2. CEE program data. 
  3. Sosin, Dick, and Reiser 1997; Suiter and Meszaros 2005; Watts and Walstad 2006; Schug and Wood 2010; Walstad and Rebeck 2001).   
  4. Cole, Shawn, Anna Paulson, and Gauri Kartini Shastry. High school curriculum and financial outcomes: The impact of mandated personal finance and mathematics courses. Journal of Human Resources 51.3 (2016): 656-698.
  5. 2015 FINRA Investor Education paper
  6. Christiana Stoddard and Carly Urban. “The Effects of Financial Education Graduation Requirements on Postsecondary Financing Decisions”