Researchers Work to Develop Nationally Normed Personal Finance Assessment for K-12 Students

Researchers at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are leading a national effort to develop modern, nationally normed assessments designed to measure what K-12 students actually know about personal finance.

Dr. Jamie Wagner, Professor of Economics and Director of UNO's Center for Economic Education, and Dr. Jennifer Davidson, Associate Professor of Practice and President of the Nebraska Council on Economic Education at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, are leading a multi-phase research project in partnership with the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) to develop personal finance assessments for elementary, middle, and high school students.

Thirty-nine states now require students to complete personal finance coursework before graduating high school, up sharply over the past decade. But, as of 2024, only two states require statewide testing in the subject — leaving educators, policymakers, and researchers without a nationally recognized way to measure what students have learned.

"Personal finance education has grown rapidly across the country, but our ability to measure student learning has not kept pace," Wagner said. "This project will provide educators and researchers with a validated, nationally representative assessment that can be used to evaluate programs, inform instruction, and support evidence-based policy decisions."

The assessments will align with the 2021 National Standards for Personal Financial Education, published by the Council for Economic Education (CEE), making them among the most current tools available for measuring financial literacy.

The research is unfolding in five phases over 2026 and 2027. The team began in Spring 2026 by revising existing elementary, middle, and high school assessments initially written by researchers at Northern Kentucky University, updating questions for clarity, improving alignment with national standards, and balancing cognitive rigor. A panel of K-12 teachers and economics education scholars will then review the assessments before they're finalized for national data collection.

Researchers will collect data during fall 2026 and spring 2027 using an established academic competition platform that reaches students across dozens of states, producing a nationally representative sample of middle and high school students.

The team will then analyze the data using established psychometric techniques, including item response theory, factor analysis, and validity and reliability testing, to produce fully normed middle school and high school assessments suitable for classroom use, program evaluation, and research.

No nationally normed assessment aligned with today's personal finance standards currently exists. That gap makes it difficult to compare programs or measure whether financial education initiatives are actually working.

The project's findings will be presented at national academic conferences and submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. A final report is expected in early fall 2027.

Media interested in coordinating interviews Dr. Wagner and/or Dr. Davidson should contact UNO's Office of Strategic Marketing at unonews@unomaha.edu