A unique component of the Middle School curriculum is Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s Financial Literacy Program. Students learn all aspects of financial responsibility, from interpreting advertising claims and balancing the bottom line to the importance of creating a budget and how credit scores are used. Â
In the Fifth Grade, students learn how to evaluate financial information to make solid decisions, with lessons on advertising, saving and investing, and consumer fraud. Sixth graders delve into sustainability and conservation, covering topics such as the impact of purchase choices, as well as the value of insurance and the importance of saving and spending. Seventh graders study about credit and debt, but primarily spend the year managing Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s Financial Literacy Fund Portfolio (see more on that below), which gives them hands-on experience with all aspects of stocks, bonds, trades, and incorporating social justice while investing. In their final year, eighth graders learn about essential financial skills such as financial planning, budgeting, and charitable giving. They also explore various career paths and skill sets needed for success in the modern workplace.
Though practical in essence, Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s Financial Literacy Program is, at its core, about building the character of our students, empowering them with tools that nurture their inner foundation of integrity and ethics, tools to use after they leave Â鶹´«Ã½ and become citizens and leaders of the world.
Financial Literacy Fund Portfolio is a centerpiece of the Seventh Grade financial literacy curriculum, where the students manage a real portfolio, which was a gift from a Â鶹´«Ã½ family.
Each incoming grade has a gift of $20,000 and over their nine years at Â鶹´«Ã½, this portion grows with investment returns. At the time of their Eighth Grade graduation, the original $20,000 rolls forward to the incoming Kindergarten class, and the increase in total value from inception is quantified.
This value is then split into two: first half is gifted pro rata to the students themselves to further their education, and the second half is a class gift back to Â鶹´«Ã½, the specifics of the gift chosen by the eighth graders. Examples of previous class gifts were donations to Â鶹´«Ã½’s Financial Aid and Sophie Krupp Chess Fund, the development of the satellite Spanish library, the purchase of a baby grand piano, and enhancing funds for field trips.
At the start of the school year, students in the Seventh Grade take responsibility as portfolio managers to review and rebalance the portfolio (with advice and oversight from independent investment analysts at a major bank and Â鶹´«Ã½ faculty and administration). The students learn about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, diversification, trading costs, and social investing strategy.
Currently, the portfolio totals approximately $325,000 (and outperformed the S&P 500 Index). As far as we know, no other seventh graders in the country manage an investment portfolio of this magnitude. This is unprecedented, and yet another example of what makes Â鶹´«Ã½’s curriculum so rich and relevant.
