What the Research Actually Says About Financial Education

For over 12 years, Carly Urban has been researching one question: does financial education actually work? As a Professor of Economics at Montana State University, she's co-authored the most comprehensive meta-analysis of financial education ever conducted, examining 76 randomized controlled trials. Her findings debunk decades of faulty research and confirm what teachers want to hear—financial education improves financial behaviors in cost-effective ways. But the devil is in the details. Her research shows that standalone semester-long courses improve credit scores and financial well-being, while embedded approaches don't show the same effects. In this session, Carly will share what actually works in financial education, why quality implementation matters more than just having requirements on paper, and what her database of high school course offerings across America reveals about the state of financial literacy education nationwide.