Mike Batty, J. Michael Collins, Collin O’Rourke, and Elizabeth Odders-White1

This brief summarizes the results of an evaluation of 

My Classroom Economy (MCE ), an innovative 

approach to financial education.2In contrast to more 

traditional financial education programs based 

around lesson plans, MCE is experiential. Teachers 

establish a classroom-based economy that integrates 

into the school day as a classroom management 

system. Research suggests that this type of 

experiential approach is a promising teaching 

strategy, with the added benefit of minimizing time 

away from other classroom activities.

Although considerable momentum has built behind 

the idea of teaching financial literacy in schools, few 

studies have identified effective financial education 

strategies for school-aged children. This evaluation 

uses rigorous techniques to examine the effect of a 

simulated economy on elementary school students’ 

financial knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. The 

evaluation was funded by the U.S. Department of the 

Treasury’s Financial Empowerment Innovation Fund 

and conducted by the Center for Financial Security 

(CFS) in partnership with the School District of 

Palm Beach County (SDPBC). 

My Classroom Economy

The Vanguard Group provides MCE program 

materials for free at myclassroomeconomy.org.

Teachers can download documents or request paper 

copies. While this evaluation focuses on students in 

grades 3–5, MCE materials are available for all 

grades K–12. 

With MCE, students earn and spend classroom 

“dollars” in a simulated economy. Teachers assign 

each student a job, from which he or she earns 

income. Students then spend their money renting or 

purchasing their desks and have the opportunity to 

Experiential Financial Capability Education:

A Field Study of My Classroom Economy

Research Brief 2016-9.1

Key Findings

Students in My Classroom Economy (MCE) 

classrooms show consistent gains in financial 

knowledge, budgeting, financial socialization, and 

economic experience after 10 weeks. These effects 

range in size but are all statistically significant and 

positive. Overall, the results of this study are 

encouraging and highlight the promise of 

experiential learning programs like MCE for 

elementary school–age students. 

MCE increases

o Financial knowledge (13% of a standard

deviation)

o Budgeting behavior (11% of a standard

deviation)

o Financial socialization—talking to parents

about money (19% of a standard deviation)

o Economic experience outside of school (21%

of a standard deviation)

 Students who used MCE were more likely to

have bank accounts and engage in money

management behaviors outside of school.

 Parents of MCE students reported that their

students were taught about money at school at

much higher rates than the comparison group.

 Teachers reported high satisfaction with MCE,

with 95% planning to continue using it.

 MCE appealed to teachers both as a classroom

management system and as a financial

education program. Teachers from a variety of

backgrounds successfully implemented MCE.

September 15, 2016

1 The content of this document does not represent the official views or policies of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The views and opinions 

expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent official Treasury positions or policy. In addition, for coauthor Batty, the 

analysis and conclusions do not indicate concurrence by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or its research staff. 

2 The evaluation was performed under contract TOS-14F-0028 for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The full report is available at 

go.wisc.edu/5vxlz5.
2 Center for Financial Security

buy items at classroom stores or auctions. MCE also 

acts as a classroom management system, allowing 

teachers to establish rules, award bonuses or impose 

fines for specific behaviors. MCE can be customized 

for individual classrooms. For instance, each teacher 

creates his or her own list of classroom jobs and 

decides which behaviors are subject to bonuses and 

fines.

The School District of Palm Beach County

In the fall of 2014, CFS issued a national call for 

school districts interested in collaborating on an 

evaluation of MCE; SDPBC was ultimately selected 

as the partner district. With an enrollment of more 

than 175,000 students, SDPBC is the 12th largest 

school district in the country, according to National 

Center for Education Statistics. SDPBC serves 

students from diverse socioeconomic and racial and 

ethnic backgrounds. The district has a district-wide 

financial literacy coordinator and a strong research 

and evaluation department.

Although MCE is well aligned with Florida’s 

financial literacy standards, the decision to 

participate in a particular financial literacy program 

ultimately rests with school-level administrators and 

teachers; 115 teachers in 24 schools opted to 

participate in the evaluation, with the understanding 

that some schools would be randomly assigned to 

the comparison group and required to delay 

implementing the program. Fourth- and fifth-grade 

classrooms were recruited for the evaluation; a small 

number of third-grade classrooms also participated. 

Evaluation Process

Schools that volunteered for the evaluation were 

randomly assigned into treatment and comparison 

groups. The treatment group implemented MCE over 

the first 13 weeks of the 2015–2016 school year, the 

district’s first trimester for elementary students. The 

comparison group delayed using the program until 

the second trimester. This cohort design is used to 

establish the causal effects of MCE on measured 

outcomes.

Teachers in both the treatment and comparison 

groups attended an in-person workshop the week 

before school started. During the training, teachers 

started preparing materials for their classrooms and 

learned more about the evaluation.

Data Collection

To measure program outcomes, CFS developed 

student and parent surveys. The University of 

Wisconsin Survey Center worked with the District to 

collect the baseline and follow-up surveys at 

participating schools during the weeks of August 31 

and November 9, respectively. 

The student surveys measured outcomes across six 

areas: 

 Financial knowledge,

 Budgeting,

 Propensity to plan,

 Self-control,

 Financial socialization, and

 Economic experience.

The survey questions were developed based on 

measures validated in prior studies and were 

pretested with similarly aged children. 

The parent survey was administered at the end of the 

first trimester, before the comparison group started 

using the program. The parent survey focused on 

financial socialization (e.g., providing an allowance, 

talking to their child about money management).

Table 1 shows the final number of student and parent 

surveys included in this analysis, as well as the 

number of classrooms and schools in each group. 

Overall, this evaluation utilizes data on 1,972 

students across 115 classrooms in 24 schools. The 15 

schools that started using MCE during the first 

trimester had 1,187 students in 69 classrooms; the 

comparison group, which delayed implementation 

until after the evaluation, comprised 785 students 

across 46 classrooms in 9 schools.

Student Outcomes

To estimate student outcomes, the analysis compares 

changes from the baseline to the follow-up survey 

between the treatment and comparison groups. The 

analysis controls for student demographics and 

students’ baseline survey responses.

The subsections that follow describe the effects of 

MCE on financial knowledge, budgeting, financial 

socialization, and economic experience. The results 

for students’ propensity to plan and self-control were 

Table 1. Final Sample Sizes, by Group

Student

Surveys

Parent

Surveys Classrooms Schools

Treatment 

Group 1,187 364 69 15

Comparison 

Group 785 399 46 9

Totals 1,972 763 115 24
Research Brief 3

not statistically significant and are excluded from 

this brief. All six of these items were measured using 

scales made up of multiple survey questions; Table 2 

shows sample questions. For ease of interpretation, 

we express effect sizes as the percentage of the 

standard deviation of the outcome. That is, 10% 

indicates an effect size of one-tenth of a standard 

deviation. Effects are considered statistically 

significant at the 5% level.

Financial Knowledge

Although MCE is not built on formal lessons about 

financial topics, the exposure to financial situations 

that it provides could improve students’ financial 

knowledge or motivate students to pursue that 

knowledge elsewhere. The financial knowledge 

scale was comprised of 13 questions. The analysis of 

these questions utilized a technique that accounts for 

the relative difficulty of each question and how well 

each question distinguishes between high- and lowperforming students.

MCE is estimated to have a statistically significant 

effect of just over one-tenth of a standard deviation 

(13%) on students’ financial knowledge scores. It is 

notable that, as measured in effect-size units, the size 

of the financial knowledge gain is similar to that 

found by Batty, Collins, and Odders-White (2015),3

who tested a five-hour, formalized course that taught 

specific content that appeared on the student 

knowledge quiz. MCE produces similar knowledge 

gains without a formal curriculum or class.

Budgeting

Within classrooms using MCE, students earn money 

and must manage expenses. This budgeting practice 

could translate into changes in related survey 

responses. The overall estimate of MCE’s effect is 

11% of a standard deviation.

Financial Socialization

The survey also included two items related to 

financial socialization from the perspective of the 

student. These measures relate to whether a student’s 

family talks about money at home. MCE had a 

statistically significant effect of 19% of a standard 

deviation.

Economic Experience

Finally, the survey measured students’ economic 

experiences outside of the MCE setting. The effect 

of MCE in this domain is statistically significant, 

with a magnitude of 21% of a standard deviation. 

This finding, like the financial socialization result, is 

consistent with MCE encouraging students to engage 

in more economic activity in the real world and more 

discussion of money issues at home. 

Parent Survey Outcomes

In addition to student-reported outcomes, we 

measured parents’ perceptions of student behavior. 

We analyze the parent survey questions recorded 

after students in the treatment group have completed 

MCE, but before the program began for students in 

the comparison group. The parent surveys measured 

five outcomes: 

 The student has a bank account in his or her own

name.

 The student earns money of his or her own (e.g.,

through chores or an allowance).

 The student manages his/her own money.

 The school teaches the student about money.

 The parent discusses financial issues with the

child.

MCE is positively associated with parents reporting 

that their children have bank accounts in their own 

name, and that their children make their own money 

decisions. In addition, parents of children in MCE 

classrooms were much more likely to report that 

their children were learning about personal finances 

at school than parents of children in the comparison 

group.

Table 2. Sample Student Survey Questions

Topic Area Sample Question

Financial 

Knowledge

A plan for spending your money is 

called a . . . 

Budgeting How often do you have a plan for 

how you will spend money?

Financial 

Socialization

How often does your family talk 

about how you spend money? 

Economic 

Experience

Do you currently have a bank account in your own name?

Propensity 

to Plan*

How often do you set goals for 

yourself?

SelfControl*

How hard is it for you to avoid 

spending any money you have 

right away? 

Note: All questions were multiple choice. 

*Results were not statistically significant and are thus excluded

from this brief.

3 Mike Batty, J. Michael Collins, and Elizabeth Odders-White (2015), Experimental evidence on the effects of financial education on elementary 

school students' knowledge, behavior, and attitudes, The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 49(1), 69–96.
4 Center for Financial Security

Outcomes Summary

Table 3 summarizes the statistically significant 

effects of MCE. The columns indicate the direction 

of the effect and the effect size expressed as a 

percent of a standard deviation. 

Teacher Experiences

To understand teachers’ experiences implementing 

MCE, three sets of data were collected: a teacher 

survey collected by the research team in November 

2015, a teacher feedback survey collected by the 

district in May 2016, and six teacher interviews. 

Overall, findings from these sources document the 

success of the evaluation design, along with high 

teacher satisfaction with the program. Key findings 

include

 95% of teachers planned to continue using the

program,

 82% rated their experience with MCE as “good”

or “excellent,”

 58% of teachers felt “very” or “extremely”

prepared to teach students about personal

finances, and

 Teachers from a variety of backgrounds,

including those with no experience teaching

financial literacy, successfully implemented

MCE after three hours of formal training.

Conclusions

MCE offers a unique approach to financial education 

that stands in contrast to formal lesson plans. This 

evaluation finds that this approach produces 

statistically significant changes in financial 

knowledge and some other financial behaviors. 

These changes are particularly compelling in light of 

the relatively short duration of the evaluation and the 

experiential approach of the program. The findings 

suggest that experiential financial learning may have 

positive educational effects on par with more formal 

financial literacy efforts. MCE also has the added 

advantage of serving as a classroom-management 

system, integrating with teachers’ day-to-day efforts 

to promote positive behaviors. The approach puts 

lower demand on teachers for training and support. 

MCE and similar approaches may provide important, 

relatively low-cost formats for promoting financial 

capability among K–12 students.

Table 3. Summary of MCE’s Effects 

Outcome Direction 

of Effect

Effect Size (fraction of 

a Standard Deviation)

Student Survey

Financial Knowledge + 0.13

Budgeting + 0.11

Financial Socialization + 0.19

Economic Experience + 0.21

Parent Survey

Student has own bank 

account

+ 0.16

Student manages own 

money

+ 0.42

Student learns about 

money at school + 2.60

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