At the invitation of Harford County Public Schools, the Maryland Council on Economic Education (MCEE) has developed a series of 12 personal finance lessons that teachers will soon start using during middle school advisory periods. The lessons were carefully curated to align with the Maryland State Curriculum for Personal Financial Literacy Education (Grades 3–12 Standards). Through this project, all 9,000 students in Harford County’s 12 middle schools will benefit from these lessons each year. As the lessons are used in subsequent years, the impact becomes even greater.
Four lessons were developed for each middle school grade level, addressing key standards: Making Informed, Financially Responsible Decisions; Relating Careers, Education, and Income; Planning and Managing Money; and Managing Credit and Debt.
Advisory periods are often used for activities outside the regular curriculum, such as reinforcing school-wide initiatives, tutoring, or social-emotional learning. Harford County Public Schools approached MCEE about creating lessons that would introduce students to key personal finance and economics concepts during these sessions.
Any teacher, regardless of their background in economics or finance, can implement MCEE’s stand-alone lessons. Each lesson is designed for a 30–45 minute advisory period and follows the 5E instructional model—Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate—which encourages active, inquiry-based learning where students construct their own understanding through discussion, hands-on activities, and reflection.
For example, in one lesson, students use the PACED decision-making guide to work through real-world financial choices. Another lesson has students use online budgeting simulations to plan and manage money. Others include interactive games from Next Gen Personal Finance that let students experience the consequences of debt decisions or career exploration activities using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data to connect education with future income.
Because advisory teachers often come from a variety of subject areas, MCEE designed each plan to require minimal preparation time and included everything needed to facilitate the lesson.
Anne Arundel County Public Schools and Montgomery County Public Schools have also requested these lessons to support their efforts in building students’ personal financial understanding and decision-making skills. Similar lesson support for Cecil County Public Schools is in the works for the spring.
As more school systems adopt this program. MCEE is closer to impacting every Maryland student as it fulfills its mission of equipping Maryland’s preK- 12 educators with tools and resources to build their students’ financial capability and economic understanding. Programs like this middle school curriculum move us closer to MCEE’s vision for the future where all youth in Maryland leave high school with the financial skills and confidence to shape their own futures and achieve lasting economic well-being.
