Tennessee, Personal Finance Graduation Requirement

Tennessee requires it.
We teach it.

Tennessee requires a personal finance course for every public high school student. Below is the complete alignment between The Crescara//Project curriculum and Tennessee's personal finance education standards.

The Law

What Tennessee Personal Finance Graduation Requirement actually requires.

Tennessee established its personal finance graduation requirement in 2013, codified in the Tennessee Code Annotated. Beginning with the graduating class of 2013, every Tennessee student has been required to complete a half-credit financial literacy course before receiving a diploma. Tennessee has required a standalone personal finance course for high school graduation since 2014. The requirement is one of the oldest in the country and applies to all public high school students. Tennessee's standards cover income, taxes, budgeting, banking, saving, credit, insurance, investing, housing, and consumer rights.

Tennessee has had a mandate for over a decade, but what most schools are teaching has not kept pace with what students actually need to know. The Crescara//Project offers Tennessee schools the most current, comprehensive, and technology-enhanced personal finance curriculum available.

2014
Year Tennessee established its personal finance graduation requirement for public high school students
Half credit
Standalone personal finance course required for graduation, no substitute course permitted
11 Required Content Areas
Every content area in this state's personal finance standards is covered across Units 1, 2, and 3 of The Crescara//Project.
Full Curriculum Alignment

Every required topic. Covered.

Tennessee Personal Finance Graduation Requirement Required Topic
Crescara//Project Coverage
Unit
Income and Employment
Ch. 2 Paycheck and Benefits, Ch. 10 Career and Resumes, Ch. 11 Negotiating
Units 1 and 2
Taxes
Ch. 13 Taxes, what a paycheck actually takes, why, and how to file
Unit 2
Budgeting and Money Management
Ch. 3 Budgeting, Ch. 4 Know Where Your Money Is, Ch. 5 Exponential Growth of Money
Unit 1
Saving and Building Wealth
Ch. 5 Exponential Growth of Money, Ch. 6 Banks and Accounts, Ch. 23 High Yield Savings, CDs, and Treasuries
Units 1 and 3
Credit and Debt
Ch. 12 Credit Scores, Ch. 14 Interest Rates, Ch. 16 Credit Cards, Ch. 17 Student Loans
Unit 2
Banking and Financial Services
Ch. 6 Types of Banks, Credit Unions, and Accounts, Ch. 26 Platform Simulations
Units 1 and 3
Insurance and Risk Management
Ch. 18 Healthcare and Disability, Ch. 24 Life Insurance, plus the Consequence Engine insurance scenarios
Units 2 and 3
Investing
Ch. 19 Investment Overview, Ch. 20 Stocks and Bonds, Ch. 21 Funds, Ch. 22 Costs of Investing, Ch. 26 Brokerage Platforms
Unit 3
Housing and Real Estate
Ch. 15 Car and Home Loans, buying vs. renting, mortgage basics, total cost of homeownership
Unit 2
Consumer Rights and Responsibility
Ch. 15 reading fine print, borrower rights, total cost of borrowing, Ch. 7 Psychology of Money
Unit 2
Financial Goal Setting
Ch. 8 Setting Goals, Ch. 7 Psychology of Money, Ch. 9 How to Build Wealth, Ch. 27 Capstone
Units 1 and 3
Beyond Compliance

Meeting the mandate is the floor. We teach past it.

Tennessee Personal Finance Graduation Requirement sets the minimum. A checklist of topics is not a curriculum. The Crescara//Project sequences Tennessee's required content areas in the order students will actually encounter them in life, connects them to each other, and builds habits through repetition, not review sheets.

You can't teach investing without first teaching budgeting. You can't teach credit without first teaching income. The sequence is the curriculum.

Personalized by geography
Content adapts to each student's real financial context. A student in rural Tennessee and a student in a major city are not facing the same realities.
Habits built in, not bolted on
Budgeting, saving, reading fine print, reinforced across all three units through the Consequence Engine, not addressed once in a single chapter.
Zero prior knowledge assumed
Every concept is introduced from scratch. Teachers do not need a financial background. Students do not need one either.
Ready to meet the mandate?

The curriculum is ready now.

Tennessee schools that connect now will be ahead of the requirement. Reach out at info@crescaraproject.org.

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