Only a small fraction of K-12 teachers feel that they have the skills to teach personal finance, according to a newly-released study. The study asked teachers to rate their competency to teach six topics in personal finance. Fewer than 20% of those surveyed felt “very competent” to teach any topic.

The good news is that 89% of teachers surveyed believe that a personal finance course or test should be required for high school graduation. To this end, more than 70% of teachers surveyed would welcome more opportunities to learn subject matter and teaching methods.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was sponsored by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE).

Other highlights include:

Having taken a course for credit in personal finance is an important predictor of whether a teacher will teach personal finance
Only 37% of teachers have taken a college course in personal finance—and prospective teachers are no more likely to have taken a course than long-serving teachers
Only 11.6% of teachers have taken a workshop on teaching methods

A press release of the study may be found here.

An executive summary may be found here.

The full report may be found here.