Student Surveys: Capturing The Magic That Occurs in Personal Finance Classes
Read about what a personal finance educator learned from a student survey and how valuable it can be to know what students got out of a course.
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May 11, 2020
Read about what a personal finance educator learned from a student survey and how valuable it can be to know what students got out of a course.
Share
Learning from A Student Survey: Personal Finance Edition
Ever wonder what students think are the most important skills they picked up in your class? An End-of-Course student survey can be a great way to see what "stuck" in your students' minds. Thanks to NGPF Fellow Sue Suttich for sharing the results from her student survey (here's a template that you can use for your End-of-Course Student Survey):
Here's a few themes that came out of it:
What's important and useful to students can be very different on student-by-student basis due to their circumstances:
Investing was mentioned most frequently as the most useful skill that students identified as gaining from the class. Here's some representative comments:
Many students also felt that learning about taxes was important:
Asking an open-ended question like "Anything else you would like to share with me" can lead to some great testimonials to share with admin about the immediate impact this course can have on student behavior and opening up a dialogue with adults in their lives. Here's what a few of Sue's students had to say:
Be sure to check out other great tools in the NGPF Advocacy Playbook.
About the Author: Tim Ranzetta
Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.