This fall, Gorham High School principal, Brian Jandreau, announced a unique public/private financial literacy partnership during an assembly with juniors and seniors. The reason? Students asked for it.
According to Chris Philbrook of Gorham Savings Bank (GSB), more than a quarter of students believe they will be unprepared to manage their finances upon high school graduation, lacking basic financial facts and concepts. Enter EverFi, an education technology company that teaches, assesses, and certifies students in critical skills, including financial literacy.
In the 2015-16 school year, EverFi and GSB partnered to pilot a free interactive, online module-based course to help area high school students be more financially knowledgeable and prepared for their future.
Twenty-seven students in Scott Becker’s math class at GHS took the course and students showed significant gains following its completion. According to Philbrook, the results of that pilot course showed that 69 percent of the students increased their scores on financial assessment tests.
After learning more about EverFi this summer, Jandreau said, “We really looked for a way to implement this program as we don’t have a course where this fits necessarily.”
Meanwhile, the school was doing surveys in the beginning of the school year as to what students would want to see in their Auxilium period. “One of the things students told us they would love to see is more opportunities to learn about things like personal finance. So I capitalized on that to use Auxilium as a way to deliver this curriculum,” said Jandreau.
Even though the modules are self-driven, two staff members, Tim Goodwin, GHS’ numeracy specialist, and Ellen Connell, GHS’ technology integrationist, are available to assist students with accessing the modules and offer help as needed.
This school year, 70 students have signed up to take the course so far and several have just completed it. There are nine 45-minute modules focusing on savings, banking, credit cards and interest rates, credit score, financing higher education, renting vs. owning, taxes and insurance, consumer protection, and investing.
Student can start the course at any time and can take as long as they want to complete it. They can log in whenever, wherever, and however. There’s no pressure to finish the course as there isn’t any course credit offered. In order to make the class mandatory, it would have to be approved by the School Committee as a graduation requirement.
“This is their own learning. It will be interesting actually to see what is the importance of a requirement factor versus I want to learn this. This is an opportunity. We are providing the opportunity. Will they take advantage of that opportunity?” said Jandreau.
As an incentive to complete the course, Jandreau will be drawing names for the chance to win his parking spot for a week.
“I see a future where we have this EverFi program be a part of a more comprehensive curriculum,” said Jandreau. “I think the next step for us is how can we sustain or grow this.”