What are the long-term effects of program participation?

The final stage aims to determine the long-term impact of financial education by looking at behavior and knowledge of students and the broader effects on the community and state.

Are students making progress?

The fourth step analyzes the effect financial education has on students in the short or medium-term. This step involves a more formal research design to ensure that the benefits students have experienced, such as gains in financial knowledge and confidence, can be attributed to financial education.

How can we do a better job raising financial literacy among students?

Once the need for financial education has been established and information on program implementation has been collected, the third step is to analyze the information and  develop recommendations for improvement.

What students do we serve, and what kind of financial education do we provide?

While the first step of evaluation provides information on the need for financial education in the community, the second step establishes baseline information on how the program is being implemented and who it is impacting.

Is financial illiteracy a problem in my community or state?

The first stage of an evaluation justifies the need for financial education, which drives the development of the mission, objectives, and characteristics of the resulting financial education program.

The framework used in this toolkit is based on five tiers of evaluation, originally developed by Francie H. Jacobs in The Five-Tiered Approach to Evaluation: Context and Implementation.