A 'C' in financial literacy.

• Author: Morton, Heather
• Position: TRENDS & TRANSITIONS

State lawmakers may call for beefed up financial literacy courses following U.S. students' disappointing performance on an international test on the subject.

American 15-year-olds placed ninth out of 18 developed countries on the two-hour Programme for International Student Assessment exam (PISA), results of which were released in July. Shanghai-China teens placed first.

Every three years, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) tests thousands of teens worldwide on math, science, reading and problem-solving. In 2012, the OECD added a financial literacy component that addressed four key areas: money and transactions; planning and managing finances; risk and reward; and identifying, analyzing and applying financial knowledge and understanding.

The United States finished in the middle of the pack behind Shanghai-China, the Flemish community of Belgium, Estonia, Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Poland and Latvia. Countries that scored below America were the Russian Federation, France, Slovenia, Spain, Croatia, Israel, the Slovak Republic, Italy and Columbia.

Lawmakers' efforts to increase the nation's collective financial IQ are not new. In legislative sessions so far this year, 28 states and Puerto Rico introduced financial literacy and education bills directed at adults and students. Among them:

* Mississippi enacted legislation authorizing the Department of Banking and Consumer Finance to establish public financial literacy programs.

* Utah now requires school districts and charter schools to administer an online, end-of-course exam to students who've taken the general financial literacy course.

* Virginia now requires the Employment Commission to provide information to all recipients of unemployment benefits and job seekers on courses in financial literacy.

In all the countries that took the test, financial education is predominately incorporated into other subjects rather than taught as a stand-alone subject. In the United States, four states require financial education to be taught as a stand-alone...