Jane Martinez-Dowling details personal finance rollout as first phase-two requirement

I think I'll transition.

You know, this year we know that personal finance actually launched in our schools as a part of this.

And that world lives within our Office of Student Pathways.

And Jane can talk a little bit about how that is getting off the ground so that we can talk more about how this is actually hitting schools, the supports that they've received, and what's going on in that first phase in of personal finance.

Thank you, FTC.

And it's good to see many of you.

Thank you for the time.

So as part of the phase two rollout of New York Inspires, we've adopted the Board of Regents adopted a K-12 personal finance education requirement.

And that's the first one that is going to be effective this year.

fall, the fall of 2026-27, for grades 5 through 12, and then in the following year for grades K through 4.

Because financial literacy has traditionally sat within our career-connected learning through Future Ready,

we took on the task this summer through our summer institute where we see 1,600 educators and we talk to them about what the portrait of a graduate will look like in their schools,

really kind of set everyone up to do their personal finance education.

It's really important because personal finance helps our students prepare financially.

We are coupling it with a lot of the work that we're doing with Save for College, which also lives in our portfolio.

And we want to really support the long-term economic mobility as students navigate increasingly complex financial decisions.

I couldn't tell you how to run a Robin Hood app, but our kids are going to have to know that.

And so we took a proactive system-wide approach ahead of implementation.

Each superintendent designated a district point person.

Schools received vetted curriculum options and implementation guidance, and personal finance was a major focus, as I said, of our summer institute.

Implementation is still in its early stages, but nearly 50% of our middle and high school students have personal finance instruction scheduled for the fall semester,

with additional schools expected to provide instruction during the spring semester based on their scheduling.

what their scheduling model looks like.

Can I pause there?

Middle and high school students, how many have it programmed for their,

50% of middle and high school students have it in their personal finance instruction that's scheduled for the fall.

Like this year?

This year, starting in September.

Is there a state or city curriculum that is official and being used?

What we did was that we provided schools with a menu of centrally reviewed curriculum resources

aligned to the New York State five required personal finance learning targets, while allowing students the flexibility to select the option that best fits their local context.

Okay.

Is there, and this is going to conform with like this portfolio-based or project-based learning, like that idea?

Yes, it will fit in within one of the many attributes.

And are there sample assignments or specific assignments per the curriculum that students have to complete?

Or are you relying on the teachers to come up with those?

No, we actually have those because the implementation models that we have used are those that we have been using through the Office of Student Pathways when we've been implementing financial literacy.

So the projects or portfolio, the assignment themselves exist.

I assume then that the rubric exists and it's across all of the schools.

Why don't...

Do you want me...

I'm happy to tell you what the implementation structure looks like in all of those schools.

Sure.

From grades 5 through 8 and grades 9 through 12, schools may provide instruction through a designated course, embedded instruction, a CTE pathway, or a combination of approaches.

As a result, implementation may occur during different grades or semester, depending on the school's academic program and scheduling structures.

And as students progress through their different grade bands, you know, to make it developmentally appropriate, instruction becomes increasingly sophisticated, helping them build and apply knowledge related to earning, spending, saving, credit, risk, and other financial decisions.

We at New York City Public Schools are going to continue supporting schools through professional learning, technical assistance, and borough-based communities of practice throughout the school year.

I think one of the concerns people have about taking away the regents is like them or hate them.

Like a teacher knows kind of like what they have to teach and everyone's graded essentially the same way.

Right.

And I think people are looking for the same thing with whatever assignments.

And I just want to make sure that.

This program, the financial literacy, and we'll have other programs, but focus on financial literacy.

The assessments are the same across the board, or they're the same per curriculum.

Is the rubric the same across the board per grade level?

Like, will every ninth grader be assessed using the same rubric?

Rubric.

That way, as an employer, I know that a kid who took, you know, the financial literacy at one school has passed the same meaningful assessment as at any other school in the city.