Financial education plays a significant role in our society by empowering people with required knowledge and skills to make accurate consumer decisions, follow appropriate financial practices, and achieve economic well being. However, some financial education programs narrowly focus only on changing people's financial knowledge and make the assumption that this leads automatically to changes in financial behavior. This assumption may work at times; however, changing financial behavior (not just increasing financial knowledge) is essential for a person to reach financial goals and achieve financial well being.

Financial education plays a significant role in our society by empowering people with required knowledge and skills to make accurate consumer decisions, follow appropriate financial practices, and achieve economic well being. However, some financial education programs narrowly focus only on changing people's financial knowledge and make the assumption that this leads automatically to changes in financial behavior. This assumption may work at times; however, changing financial behavior (not just increasing financial knowledge) is essential for a person to reach financial goals and achieve financial well being.

Major Topics in Financial Education
Financial education is a very broad subject and it can encompass many areas, such as goal setting, wise consumer practices, information gathering, retirement planning, and end-of-life planning, as well as traditional topics such as budgeting, cash-flow management, banking, savings, and investments. Some topics in financial education will continue to evolve in content and importance as both the economy and government policies that affect those topics continue to change. While the importance of some topics may change over time, other topics, such as decision-making, cash-flow management, savings, credit, debt, housing, and planning for the future will always be important to the individual. These basic topics represent the core topic areas of financial education.

Key Components of Every Financial Education Program
Financial education is very similar to other educational programs. It takes place in formal, non-formal, and informal educational settings. Formal settings include credit courses offered in high school and colleges. Non-formal settings include financial education training workshops and counseling programs provided by various organizations and individuals outside of formal educational institutions. Informal financial education comes from everyday interactions with people and mass media.

Before the financial educator begins the program evaluation process, it is important to review the education program to make sure that it has all the key elements to function successfully. The following list contains the essential components necessary in a good program presented in either a formal or non-formal educational setting:

• Identified target participant group
• Identified financial education needs
• Program objectives designed to meet identified needs
• Educational materials and lesson plans chosen to achieve learning objectives
• Delivery method chosen to facilitate participant access to educational materials
• Inclusion of evaluation plan and data-collecting instruments
• Trained financial educator to facilitate learning
• Program monitoring plan to utilize evaluation data for building stronger programs

Target Audiences
Target audiences of financial education are very diverse. Participants' ages, levels of education, socio-economic backgrounds, and learning needs can vary greatly. For example, the ages of potential audiences can range from youth to older adult. Their levels of education can range from elementary school to graduate school. This variation underscores the educational diversity of potential audiences of financial education programs and the need for carefully selecting educational materials, delivery methods, and the evaluation approach based on the needs of each audience to achieve desired results.

Methods of Financial Education Delivery
Various methods are used to deliver financial education programs. These methods can be classified under three main categories:

1. Individual Methods
   • one-on-one counseling
   • telephone advising
2. Group Methods
   • seminars/presentations
   • training workshops
   • workshop series
   • credit courses offered through formal educational institutions
3. Mass Methods
   • Web-based programs
   • interactive CD programs
   • TV programs
   • newsletters/papers
   • radio programs

This evaluation database has been designed primarily to develop evaluation tools to assess the financial education programs presented by individual and group delivery methods, rather than through methods geared toward reaching the mass market.

Participants' Rights and IRB Requirements

When designing evaluation tools and collecting data, special attention must be paid to protecting the rights of the participants. It is necessary to follow the human subjects governing rules and regulations to ensure that participants' privacy and freedom rights are not violated.

Participants' rights as human subjects are governed by the Institutional Review Board (IRB), and financial educators must follow IRB guidelines when designing evaluation instruments to comply with human subjects requirements.

To comply with participants' privacy rights governing rules, financial educators must either ensure the confidentiality of data and information that results from the program, or they must collect data in a way that guarantees the anonymity of the participant.

In general, to comply with IRB regulations, if financial educators plan to collect identifiable data from participants, they must receive their consent before collecting data and ensure the confidentiality of data and information. When participants' consent is obtained, it is necessary to state that "participation in the evaluation is voluntary and the participant has the right to withdraw from the evaluation at any time without any penalty." If the confidentiality cannot be ensured, data and information should be anonymous.

It is advisable to get an IRB review before evaluation tools are used to collect data and information. If the financial educator's organization does not have an Institutional Review Board, it is still necessary to ensure participants' privacy and freedom rights as put forth by the IRB.

For more information on IRB guidelines, see the United States Department of Health and Human Services IRB Guide Book located at http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/irb/irb_guidebook.htm.