High School Students Are Receiving Poor Education
Many studies show that high school students are receiving poor education as regards financial literacy (e.g. NAEP, 1979). Mandell (1997), for instance, reports that high school students have an average score of 57% in terms of money management, savings and investment, spending and other areas of income. HS graduates, in other words, have weak financial literacy. Adults also, generally, are almost totally illiterate regarding retirement and investment decision-making. A study of 552 adult females found that 56% were ignorant about the fundamentals of investing (Chen & Volpe, 1998).
What this study seeks to investigate is whether college students would have a better grasp of financial literacy than high school graduates have and whether this improved financial literacy is a result of their college experiences.