For Alabama Teachers · Standards Alignment
Alabama’s Financial Literacy Standards, Mapped to a Ready-to-Teach Course
Alabama requires students to complete a financial literacy course to graduate. This page sets out what the law asks for, lists all 18 of the state’s grades 9–12 financial literacy standards, and shows for each one whether our 10 classroom-ready units cover it fully, in part, or not at all — with the partial rows naming exactly what is missing.
The Requirement
What Alabama actually requires
In 2023 the Alabama Legislature passed Act #2023-179, requiring students entering Grade 9 in the 2024-2025 academic year to “complete a course in personal financial literacy along with an accompanying financial literacy examination”. ALSDE has approved two courses to satisfy it: Career Preparedness (22153G1000) and Career Preparedness B (22153G0522). So the content standards a student is actually held to are the financial literacy standards of the Alabama Course of Study: Career Preparedness — 18 of them across five content areas, which is what this page maps. Career Preparedness is a one-credit course required for graduation that can be taught in Grades 9-12.
⚠ And there is an exam. “The Financial Literacy Examination consists of fifty (50) multiple-choice questions that assesses each of the required instructional topics”, and to pass, “students must answer a minimum of thirty (30) items correctly; however, a passing score is NOT required for graduation”. The topics it must cover are set by the act: Banking and Financial Institutions; Managing Finances and Budgeting; Money Management and Personal Tax Liabilities; Saving and Investing; Risk Management and Insurance; Credit and Debt Management; and Business and Legal Concepts. ⭐ That is worth keeping in view while you read the table — a row these units do not carry is a row the exam may still ask about, which is a different kind of gap from the ones on the other state pages here.
Check every detail against Alabama’s own sources: the Alabama Course of Study: Career Preparedness, ALSDE’s graduation requirements guidance, which carries the act and the exam rules, and the graduation requirements page. Districts differ in when they timetable Career Preparedness, so confirm your own building’s plan before you build a syllabus around it.
The Course
10 units, 50 days, written to be taught in order
10 five-day units, 50 class periods of core instruction. How much of a semester that is depends on your building: on an every-other-day block, where a semester is roughly 45 to 50 meetings, the units fill it; on a traditional daily period, where a semester runs nearer 90, they are the spine and the course tests and the gap material below fill the rest. Plan the schedule against your own calendar rather than against this figure.
Every unit ships a free pacing guide, pre-quiz and vocabulary sheet that need no account, so you can read the objectives this crosswalk is built from before deciding anything. The full teacher kit — teacher guide, student packet, quizzes, unit project, final assessment, editable slides and the complete ZIP — comes with Full Membership.
Each card shows how many Alabama standards that unit carries, fully or in part. A standard taught by two units is counted on both, so these add to 27 rather than to the 14 standards the course addresses.
The Crosswalk
All 18 standards, and how far the course covers each one
14 of the 18 standards are addressed by a unit — 4 fully and 10 in part. Of the 4 that are not, 4 are served elsewhere on this site and are linked in the table. Standard codes and wording below are reproduced from the financial literacy standards of the Alabama Course of Study: Career Preparedness.
How to read the third column. A unit is listed against a standard only where its published pacing-guide objectives support it, so every row here is one you can check yourself against a free PDF. Fully means those objectives support the standard’s main clause and every requirement it names outside its “e.g.” examples. Partly means they support the main clause but not one or more named requirements — and the row says which, so you know exactly what to supplement. It is a strict rule, applied the same way in all five content areas; the member materials in each unit go further than the free guide advertises, so treat this as the floor, not the ceiling.
The misses are not spread evenly. Credit and Debt (4) is where the course leaves the most to supplement — 2 of its 5 standards are carried by no unit — so plan for that content area first. The table names every content area.
Alabama attaches an exam to this requirement, and it is the only state on this site that does. Every student who completes the course sits the ALSDE Financial Literacy Examination — fifty multiple-choice questions covering each required topic, thirty correct to pass — and while a pass is not required to graduate, the score is recorded. ⭐ So read the uncovered rows twice: they are content a course would need to add, and they are also content the exam may ask about. ⚠ There are three, and two of them are the same shape as everywhere else in this series — a product taxonomy (17b: funds, ETFs, stocks, bonds, CDs, real estate, commodities) and a legal procedure (21d: Chapter 7, 11 and 13 bankruptcy), both of which these units leave out by design so that nothing printed goes out of date. The third, 15b, is a spreadsheet skill rather than a finance one.
| Content Area | Standards | Fully | Partly | Not by a unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Managing Finances and Budgeting | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 2 Saving and Investing | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 Banking and Financial Institutions | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 4 Credit and Debt | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 5 Risk Management and Insurance | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| All five content areas | 18 | 4 | 10 | 4 |
1 · Managing Finances and Budgeting
| Standard | What it asks for | Where the course covers it |
|---|---|---|
| 15a Standard 15 |
Create a budget, net worth statement, and income expense statement using a spreadsheet. | PartlyBudgeting & First Paycheck · Taxes & First Filing · Renting & Major PurchasesNot covered here: Two of the three documents this standard names are not produced: a net worth statement and an income expense statement. The unit builds the budget and the spending log. |
| 15b Standard 15 |
Utilize spreadsheet features, including formulas, functions, sorting, filtering, charts, and graphs. | No unit — see Worksheet generators · Money skills lessons & worksheets |
| 15c Standard 15 |
Identify types of income other than wages, including rent, interest, and profit earned from various resources. | PartlyCareers & Paying for Education · Investing & Long-Term GrowthNot covered here: The standard names rent, interest and profit as income types beside wages, and no published objective teaches income from property or from owning a business. |
| 15d Standard 15 |
Evaluate various methods for acquiring goods and making major purchases. Examples: borrowing, renting, leasing, paying cash | FullyRenting & Major Purchases · Credit & Borrowing |
| 16a Standard 16 |
Compare goods and services to determine best value, including sales tax, tips, coupons, discounts, product quality, and unit pricing. | PartlyRenting & Major Purchases · Budgeting & First Paycheck · Insurance & RiskNot covered here: The consumer-arithmetic items this standard names are not published objectives: sales tax, tips, coupons, discounts and unit pricing. The site’s consumer-math worksheets carry that practice. |
| 16b Standard 16 |
Explore how to use different payment methods, including cash, debit card, credit card, online payments, mobile devices, checks, payroll cards, layaway plans, and automatic bank deductions. | FullyModern Payments, Scams & Fraud · Banking & Checking · Credit & Borrowing |
2 · Saving and Investing
| Standard | What it asks for | Where the course covers it |
|---|---|---|
| 17a Standard 17 |
Explain how using the principles of compound interest and the Rule of 72 in investing builds wealth to meet financial goals. | PartlySaving & Emergency Funds · Investing & Long-Term GrowthNot covered here: The Rule of 72 is named in the standard and is taught on this site’s own article and worksheet generator rather than in a unit day. |
| 17b Standard 17 |
Evaluate various ways to buy and sell investments, including mutual funds, exchange- traded funds (ETFs), stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit (CDs), real estate, and commodities. | No unit — see Investing lessons & worksheets · Investing articles · MI Brokerage Simulator |
3 · Banking and Financial Institutions
| Standard | What it asks for | Where the course covers it |
|---|---|---|
| 18a Standard 18 |
Evaluate services and related costs associated with financial institutions in terms of personal banking needs. Examples: checking and savings accounts, personal checks, cashier checks, overdraft fees | PartlyBanking & Checking · Saving & Emergency FundsNot covered here: Comparing institutions against each other, and the specific instruments in the examples (personal checks against cashier’s checks), are not published objectives. |
| 19 Standard |
Demonstrate how to manage checking and savings accounts, balance bank statements, and use online financial services. | PartlyBanking & CheckingNot covered here: Balancing a bank statement — reconciling the register against what the bank says — is the one demand in this standard that no published objective reaches; the site’s balancing worksheets carry it. |
4 · Credit and Debt
| Standard | What it asks for | Where the course covers it |
|---|---|---|
| 20a Standard 20 |
Analyze credit card offerings for the effect on personal finances. Examples: annual percentage rate (APR), grace period, incentive buying, methods of calculating interest, fees | PartlyCredit & BorrowingNot covered here: Grace period and the methods of calculating interest are named and are not published objectives. |
| 21a Standard 21 |
Explain ways of building and maintaining a good credit score. | FullyCredit & Borrowing |
| 21b Standard 21 |
Determine the implication of entering into contracts and binding agreements. (e.g. college loans, cell phone contracts, car loans, collateral loans, passbook loans, mortgages). | PartlyRenting & Major Purchases · Credit & Borrowing · Careers & Paying for EducationNot covered here: The other agreements this standard names — car loans, collateral and passbook loans, mortgages, and a phone contract — are not read in any published objective. |
| 21c Standard 21 |
Describe legal and illegal types of credit that carry high interest rates, including payday loans, rent-to-buy agreements, and loan-sharking. | No unit — see Credit lessons & worksheets · Credit & Debt articles · Debt Relief articles |
| 21d Standard 21 |
Assess the implications of bankruptcy, including Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 13. | No unit — see Debt Relief articles · Legal Basics articles |
5 · Risk Management and Insurance
| Standard | What it asks for | Where the course covers it |
|---|---|---|
| 22a Standard 22 |
Analyze factors that reduce the cost of insurance. | FullyInsurance & Risk |
| 22b Standard 22 |
Identify perils that are insurable. Examples: injury, loss, destruction | PartlyInsurance & RiskNot covered here: The standard asks which perils are insurable, a narrower question than which are worth insuring, and no published objective draws that line. |
| 23 Standard |
Develop a plan for financial security in the event of disaster, including secure storage of financial records and personal documents, available cash reserve, household inventory list, and medical records retention. | PartlySaving & Emergency Funds · Modern Payments, Scams & FraudNot covered here: The records half of this standard is not taught: secure storage of financial and personal documents, a household inventory list and medical records retention. |
The Gaps
The 4 standards these units do not teach
No single course covers 18 standards to the same depth, and a crosswalk that claimed otherwise would not be much use to you in a curriculum review. These are the ones the 10 units do not carry, each with the reason. Most are served by something else on this site; where nothing is, it says so. Links marked lessons, worksheets or by a printable’s name are classroom material; links marked articles are background reading rather than something you can hand to a class.
- 15b Utilize spreadsheet features, including formulas, functions, sorting, filtering, charts, and graphs.Spreadsheet features — formulas, functions, sorting, filtering, charts and graphs. That is a technology skill rather than a finance one, and no published objective teaches it. Elsewhere on this site: Worksheet generators, Money skills lessons & worksheets.
- 17b Evaluate various ways to buy and sell investments, including mutual funds, exchange- traded funds (ETFs), stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit (CDs), real estate, and commodities.Buying and selling investments, and the products themselves — mutual funds, ETFs, stocks, bonds, CDs, real estate and commodities. Deliberate on our side: the Investing unit teaches the money before it reaches the market and prints no product list or rate of return, so that a printed worksheet cannot go out of date. Elsewhere on this site: Investing lessons & worksheets, Investing articles, MI Brokerage Simulator.
- 21c Describe legal and illegal types of credit that carry high interest rates, including payday loans, rent-to-buy agreements, and loan-sharking.Payday loans, rent-to-buy agreements and loan-sharking — the high-rate credit market, legal and illegal. No published objective covers it. Elsewhere on this site: Credit lessons & worksheets, Credit & Debt articles, Debt Relief articles.
- 21d Assess the implications of bankruptcy, including Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 13.The implications of bankruptcy, including Chapter 7, Chapter 11 and Chapter 13. The units teach how debt gets expensive rather than how it is discharged. Elsewhere on this site: Debt Relief articles, Legal Basics articles.
Scope
The 14 standards on this course that are not personal finance
The Career Preparedness course of study carries 23 standards. 18 of them are the financial literacy standards this page maps. The rest are there for other reasons, and a crosswalk that claimed to teach them would not be worth much to you — so they are named here instead of quietly dropped.
- 1 Personal Decision Making (standard 1) — academic planning, career development and technology, which this crosswalk does not claim
- 6 Academic Planning and Career Development (standards 2 to 7) — academic planning, career development and technology, which this crosswalk does not claim
- 7 Technology Skill Applications (standards 8 to 14) — academic planning, career development and technology, which this crosswalk does not claim
Those are the course's academic planning, career development and technology standards. A Career Preparedness teacher covers them too — they are simply not personal finance, so this page does not claim them.
For Your Documentation
Using this in a curriculum map
Copy the standard codes straight from the table into your planning documents. Each unit’s own page lists its five daily objectives, and the free pacing guide prints them in a one-page table you can attach to a curriculum map or hand to a department head.
If you also report against the national frameworks, the Jump$tart and CEE crosswalk maps the same library to those. For placement and end-of-course evidence, the assessments hub lists the free course diagnostic and the unit and course tests.
Teach the whole course
The pacing guides, pre-quizzes and vocabulary sheets are free and need no account. Full Membership adds every teacher guide, student packet, quiz, unit project, final assessment and editable slide deck across all 10 units, plus the worksheet generators and printables the units point to.
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