For Utah Teachers · Standards Alignment
Utah’s General Financial Literacy Standards, Mapped to a Ready-to-Teach Course
Utah requires students to complete a general financial literacy course to graduate. This page sets out what the law asks for, lists all 15 of the state’s grades 11–12 general 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 Utah actually requires
Utah’s requirement is a State Board of Education rule rather than a statute. Utah Admin. Code R277-700-6, part of the Utah State Board of Education’s administrative rules, sets graduation at a minimum of 24 units of credit and lists General Financial Literacy (0.5 units of credit) as a requirement in its own right — not folded into social studies or mathematics. The rule was last amended effective June 7, 2024. The course is written for juniors and seniors and may be taken in a traditional classroom, online, or for concurrent enrollment credit.
Utah is unusual in a way that should shape how you plan the year: there is a required end-of-course exam, and the state publishes how it is weighted. Under Utah Code 53E-3-505 and Board Rule R277-704, a statewide online assessment is administered to every student enrolled in the course, with a cut score of 74%. The standards document itself prints the Number of Test Points by Strand — 5, 7, 9, 20 and 20 points out of 61, across 52 questions. Strands 4 and 5 alone are 40 of the 61. That is the state telling you which two thirds of these standards its own test actually asks about.
The content is set by USBE’s Strands and Standards: General Financial Literacy (course 01.00.00.00.100), revised February 2023: 15 standards across five strands, with the real demands written as bullets underneath each one. An educator needs the General Financial Literacy endorsement on their license to teach the course.
Check every detail against Utah’s own sources: Utah Admin. Code R277-700-6, USBE’s General Financial Literacy page, the Strands and Standards: General Financial Literacy themselves, and the graduation requirements. Districts differ in when they schedule the half credit and whether students take it online or in a classroom, 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 Utah standards that unit carries, fully or in part. A standard taught by two units is counted on both, so these add to 29 rather than to the 13 standards the course addresses.
The Crosswalk
All 15 standards, and how far the course covers each one
13 of the 15 standards are addressed by a unit — 0 fully and 13 in part. Of the 2 that are not, 2 are served elsewhere on this site and are linked in the table. Standard codes and wording below are reproduced from Strands and Standards: General Financial Literacy, Utah State Board of Education, revised February 2023 (course 01.00.00.00.100).
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 strands; 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. 1 · Students will understand basic economic concepts and develop economic… is where the course leaves the most to supplement — 2 of its 2 standards are carried by no unit — so plan for that strand first. The table names every strand.
Two things to know before you read the table, and the first one changes how you should weight everything below it. Utah publishes how its own end-of-course exam is weighted, in the same document as the standards: 5, 7, 9, 20 and 20 test points across the five strands, out of 61. Strands 4 and 5 are 40 of those 61 points, two thirds of the test — saving, investing, risk, budgeting, credit and consumer protection — and Strand 1, the macroeconomics strand this course covers least, is worth five. Coverage on this page is not evenly important, and it is Utah that says so. Second, no row below reads Fully, and that is a fact about how Utah writes a standard rather than a verdict on the course: each one is a heading with four to ten separate demands bulleted underneath, so meeting it in full means meeting all of them. The note on each partial row is the finding; the column totals are not a like-for-like comparison with another state’s page.
| Strand | Standards | Fully | Partly | Not by a unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Students will understand basic economic concepts and develop economic thinking critical to making personal financial choices. | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 Students will understand the factors that influence personal financial priorities and learn how to make rational decisions. | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 3 Students will understand sources of income and the relationship between career preparation and lifetime earning power. | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 4 Students will evaluate saving methods and investment strategies. | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 5 Students will understand principles of personal money management, including budgeting and managing accounts, and the role and impact of credit on personal finance. | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| All five strands | 15 | 0 | 13 | 2 |
1 · Students will understand basic economic concepts and develop economic thinking critical to making personal financial choices.
| Standard | What it asks for | Where the course covers it |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 Understand how basic economic principles affect personal financial choices. |
Describe the role different participants play in the economy, such as households, businesses, government. Define gross domestic product (GDP) and explain why it is important. Define inflation and explain its impact on economic and financial choices. Compare and contrast: expansion, recession, and depression. Discuss the role of the federal government in fiscal policy and the role of the federal reserve in monetary policy. Explain the law of supply and demand. Analyze how the larger economy develops from individual participants' rational economic choices. Explain how scarcity of financial resources affects rational economic choices. Define factors of production, resources, macroeconomics, and microeconomics. Apply economic reasoning skills to make informed personal financial decisions, including opportunity cost (tradeoffs) and their role in decision-making. | No unit — see Economics lessons & worksheets · Politics & Economy articles |
| 1.2 Analyze different economic systems and how they impact personal financial choice, wealth generation, and economic freedom. |
Understand the different ideologies behind economic systems, including: Capitalism, Laissez-Faire, Social Market, Neo-Capitalism, Socialism, Fascism, and Communism. Discuss historic and current examples of traditional, market, command, and mixed economic systems and their effects on economic growth. Discuss how free market systems and property rights correlate with economic prosperity. | No unit — see Economics lessons & worksheets · Politics & Economy articles |
2 · Students will understand the factors that influence personal financial priorities and learn how to make rational decisions.
| Standard | What it asks for | Where the course covers it |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 Analyze the role of emotional, cultural, and social influences on financial behavior. |
Understand the benefits of personal financial planning on intra- and inter-personal relationships, such as less relational stress, less worry in times of economic uncertainty, self-reliance, wealth building, personal ownership, giving gifts and/or inheritance. Discuss the principles of financial management that promote individual financial stability, such as minimizing debt. Evaluate the role of emotions, attitudes, and habits in making financial decisions. Understand how culture and values influence financial decisions and goals. Discuss examples as well as the pros and cons of charitable giving, such as assistance to those in need, tax benefits, religious worship, excess production. Give examples of how marketing strategies, social media, and social pressure can influence purchasing decisions. Emphasize the importance of comparison shopping, buying strategies, and negotiation in purchasing. | PartlyBudgeting & First Paycheck · Saving & Emergency Funds · Modern Payments, Scams & Fraud · Credit & BorrowingNot covered here: Four named demands are absent from the published objectives. Charitable giving — its pros, cons and the reasons people do it — appears nowhere. Neither does how culture and values shape financial goals, nor how marketing, social media and social pressure shape a purchase. And comparison shopping, buying strategies and negotiation are named as a demand of their own; the units compare job offers and housing options, but not products at the point of sale. |
| 2.2 Define a rational decision-making process. |
Recognize that individuals are responsible for their own financial decisions and for subsequent positive and negative consequences. Describe cost-benefit analysis as a rational decision-making process. Understand the differences between saving, investing, speculation, and gambling. Compare instant satisfaction with delayed gratification, such as impulse buying versus planned expenditures. | PartlyInvesting & Long-Term Growth · Renting & Major Purchases · Careers & Paying for Education · Insurance & RiskNot covered here: The standard asks students to distinguish four things — saving, investing, speculation and gambling. The units separate the first two carefully and never name the last two. Delayed gratification is present in substance through Saving Day 1, but impulse buying versus planned expenditure is not taught as its own contrast. |
3 · Students will understand sources of income and the relationship between career preparation and lifetime earning power.
| Standard | What it asks for | Where the course covers it |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1 Identify sources of income and specific employability skills. |
Identify sources of income, such as salary, wages, commissions, and tips. Evaluate and compare career opportunities based on individual interests, skills and educational requirements, the value of work to the market, and income potential. Compare the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship/self-employment. Compare income to the cost-of-living in various geographical areas and the impact it has on purchasing power. Understand the effects of FICA (Social Security and Medicare), state, local, and federal taxes and voluntary deductions on wages and income, and the similarities and differences between wages and income. Contrast the differences between gross income, net income, and taxable income. Understand the effects of state (Form TC-40) and federal (Form 1040) taxes and the requirement to file, including income, filing status and dependency tax law, and adjustments. Understand basic employment forms and processes, including W-2, W-4, and I-9. | PartlyCareers & Paying for Education · Budgeting & First Paycheck · Taxes & First FilingNot covered here: Three demands are missing, and the first is specific to Utah: the standard names Form TC-40, Utah’s own state income tax return, alongside the federal 1040, and these units teach the federal return only — a Utah teacher should plan a state-return lesson beside Taxes Day 4. The other two are the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship or self-employment, and comparing income against cost of living in different places to see what purchasing power actually is. The I-9 is also named and never appears. |
| 3.2 Understand and begin preparation for post-secondary training and career. |
Recognize and explore the correlation between education, training, and potential lifetime income. Discuss types of post-secondary training available to students and scholarship/grant opportunities. Calculate the costs of post-secondary training options and analyze the return on investment (ROI) based on career choices. Understand the cost differences between public and private and between nonprofit and for-profit higher education and/or professional training. Identify components to be included on a resume and/or electronic professional profile, such as appropriate contact information, experience [educational, work, and volunteer], skills, certificates obtained, accomplishments, interests, and references. Identify sources and strategies for finding employment, as well as the benefits of networking. Identify soft skills [communication, teamwork, time management, problem-solving, punctuality] that increase employability, retention, and earning power. | PartlyCareers & Paying for EducationNot covered here: Three demands are not reached. The standard asks for the cost differences between public and private and between nonprofit and for-profit training specifically, and the published objectives compare two institutions without naming that distinction. Job-search sources and strategies, and the benefits of networking, are a separate demand from the resume and interview work that Day 2 covers. And the soft-skills list — communication, teamwork, time management, problem-solving, punctuality — is named as its own demand and taught by no objective. |
4 · Students will evaluate saving methods and investment strategies.
| Standard | What it asks for | Where the course covers it |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1 Describe and discuss financial institutions and demonstrate how to manage personal financial accounts. |
Explain the role of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the National Credit Union Association (NCUA). Compare the roles of financial institutions and their services, such as banks and credit unions, and the importance of banking. Demonstrate how to monitor and manage checking/debit and saving accounts. Describe available consumer banking technologies, such as online deposits, bill pay, and peer-to-peer transfers. Explain the potential consequences of checking account mismanagement, such as non-sufficient funds (NSF) handling and overdraft processing. | PartlyBanking & Checking · Modern Payments, Scams & FraudNot covered here: Two demands are absent. The FDIC and the NCUA are named explicitly and appear in no published objective, which matters because the standard is asking what protects the money rather than how the account works. And credit unions are named beside banks as a comparison of their own; the units teach banking without setting the two institution types against each other. |
| 4.2 Discuss the pros and cons of saving. |
Explain how paying yourself first (PYF) early and often influences positive progress toward long-term financial goals. Identify and understand basic saving options, such as savings accounts and Certificates of Deposit. Discuss how over-savings can be eroded by inflation. Understand that savings are designed to preserve principal. | PartlySaving & Emergency Funds · Banking & Checking · Budgeting & First PaycheckNot covered here: The standard’s third demand — that over-saving can be eroded by inflation — is not supported by any published objective, and it is the one demand here that changes a student’s conclusion rather than adding to it. Certificates of deposit are also named as a basic saving option and are not taught by name. |
| 4.3 Discuss the risks and returns of investing. |
Identify and understand investment options, including retirement planning, long and short-term investments, and dividend reinvestment plans. Identify types of long-term retirement accounts, such as IRA, Roth IRA, 401(k), and Roth 401(k). Compare and contrast the basic types of investment products, including stocks, mutual funds, real estate, commodities, collectibles, and bonds. Discuss the reasons to invest, the fees associated with investing, and strategies to reduce fees. Discuss the relationship between risk and return. Demonstrate the time value of money using a compound interest calculator. | PartlyInvesting & Long-Term Growth · Saving & Emergency FundsNot covered here: The product taxonomy is missing and it is missing on purpose. The standard asks students to compare stocks, mutual funds, real estate, commodities, collectibles and bonds, and to identify dividend reinvestment plans; this unit deliberately teaches the money before it reaches the market and prints no rate of return, so that it does not go out of date. Retirement account types — IRA, Roth IRA, 401(k), Roth 401(k) — are named in the unit’s linked resources but not in a published objective. A Utah teacher should expect to add a market-mechanics lesson here; it is worth 20 test points. |
| 4.4 Understand the role of risk management in asset protection. |
Discuss risk management strategies, including acceptance, transfer, and reduction. Discuss the purposes of insurance/risk management. Define common insurance products and their purposes, such as automobile, health, homeowner/renter, whole/term life, and disability. Define terms of a basic insurance policy, such as contract, limits of coverage, premium, deductible, grace period, and lifetime limit. Discuss insurance needs at different stages of life. Understand the identification and designation of beneficiaries. | PartlyInsurance & RiskNot covered here: Two demands are not reached. Insurance needs at different stages of life is a life-cycle question the unit does not ask, and the identification and designation of beneficiaries appears nowhere — which also means whole and term life and disability cover, named in the products demand, are the policy types the unit touches least. |
5 · Students will understand principles of personal money management, including budgeting and managing accounts, and the role and impact of credit on personal finance.
| Standard | What it asks for | Where the course covers it |
|---|---|---|
| 5.1 Identify and explain the process of budgeting based on projected income and expenses. |
Define the elements of a financial plan and describe the benefits of financial planning. Include: Identify short- and long-term financial goals and the impact they have on one's financial plan. Develop a budget that includes the following categories: spending/debt, savings, investing, charitable contributions (such as the 70-20-10 rule). Define fixed, variable, and periodic budget categories. Emphasize the importance of a goals-based budget, including priorities, such as pay yourself first, emergency/opportunity fund, insurance, and charitable or other voluntary contributions. Compare tools for tracking a budget, income, and expenditures, such as paper and digital tracking. | PartlyBudgeting & First Paycheck · Saving & Emergency FundsNot covered here: Two of the named budget categories are missing. Periodic expenses — the ones that arrive quarterly or annually and wreck a monthly plan — are named beside fixed and variable and are not taught as a third category. And charitable contributions, named twice in this standard including in its 70-20-10 example, appear in no published objective. |
| 5.2 Describe and discuss the impact of credit and debt on personal money management. |
Discuss the purpose and role of credit. Explain the value of building and maintaining a healthy credit rating, including elements of creditworthiness: character, capacity, capital, collateral, and conditions. Explore and discuss the pros and cons of basic types of credit, including unsecured vs. secured credit, credit cards, installment loans, revolving credit, student loans, mortgage, and payday/predatory lenders. Evaluate the costs and risks of each type. Define and understand the terms associated with credit, including APR, grace period, late fees, finance charges, default rates, interest, and closing costs. Explain the purpose of co-signers and collateral when applying for a loan. Understand and demonstrate simple interest calculations. Calculate how long it takes to repay debt by making minimum payments on installment loans or revolving accounts. Describe the personal and societal effects of bankruptcy and identify circumstances that lead to bankruptcy, such as uninsured medical costs, family break-up, divorce, or loss of job. | PartlyCredit & Borrowing · Saving & Emergency FundsNot covered here: Four demands are absent. The five Cs of creditworthiness — character, capacity, capital, collateral, conditions — are named explicitly and taught nowhere. Neither are co-signers and collateral on a loan application. Bankruptcy, its personal and societal effects and what leads to it, is a demand of its own with no objective behind it. And among the credit types the standard lists, mortgages and their closing costs sit outside what this unit covers. |
| 5.3 Explain and understand credit reports and the significance of credit scores. |
Identify the three major credit bureaus. Evaluate and identify components of a credit report, including derogatory remarks, and the warning signs of credit abuse, such as late fees, missed payments, collection notices, and bounced checks. Evaluate the impact a credit score has on personal finance. Understand the legal right to a free annual credit report (AnnualCreditReport.com). | PartlyCredit & BorrowingNot covered here: The credit report half is not covered. The three major credit bureaus are not named; the components of a report — derogatory remarks, and the warning signs of credit abuse such as late fees, missed payments, collection notices and bounced checks — are not read; and the legal right to a free annual report at AnnualCreditReport.com does not appear. ⭐ Worth knowing before you plan the lesson: this is the standard where Utah’s own document drops a bullet marker, so the free-report demand is easy to miss when reading the PDF. |
| 5.4 Understand the importance and complications of the three big expenses: housing, cars, and education. |
Identify the process, rights, and responsibilities related to renting, leasing, and purchasing a home. Understand the primary homeownership qualification factors, such as debt-to-income and loan-to-value ratios, and the roles of the professionals involved in the home-buying process. Understand the similarities and differences between principal and interest on an amortization schedule. Compare the pros and cons of buying or leasing a new or used vehicle, and identify the costs associated with each option. Identify sources of funding to assist in post-high school education opportunities and the cost of repayment, including scholarships, grants, loans, savings, tuition reimbursement, work study, and gifts. Understand the use and advantages of 529 plans and the benefit of planning early to pay for the cost of post-secondary education and training. Understand the financial benefits of pursing higher education opportunities while in high school. Understand the process for and benefits of FAFSA completion. [Seek guidance from school counselors/college awareness counselors.] | PartlyRenting & Major Purchases · Careers & Paying for EducationNot covered here: This standard bundles more separate demands than any other on the page, and four are not reached. The homeownership qualification factors — debt-to-income and loan-to-value ratios, and the professionals involved in a purchase — are not taught, nor is principal against interest on an amortization schedule. The vehicle demand is specifically buying versus leasing, and Renting Day 5 prices ownership without setting a lease beside it. 529 plans and the financial benefit of earning college credit while still in high school are named and absent, and so is the process for completing the FAFSA itself — the units read the award letter that comes back, not the form that produces it. |
| 5.5 Define the rights and responsibilities of buyers and sellers under consumer protection laws. |
Understand financial contracts tied to consumer purchases, such as cell phone, subscription fees, and membership fees. Discuss the negative impacts of predatory lending practices and explore: title loans, payday loans, and pawn loans. Identify ways to avoid identity theft and fraud, including securing sensitive financial data, using care when participating in online commerce, avoiding phishing and pharming, and properly disposing of sensitive documents. Understand the challenges and responsibilities of those who are victims of fraud or identity theft. Discuss common financial scams and schemes and ways to avoid them. Identify the pros and cons of online commerce, including how to conduct transactions safely, such as using credit cards versus debit cards for online purchases. Understand the role of the government in protecting the consumer and explain the features of consumer protection laws. Identify federal and state entities that exist to protect consumers from forms of fraud and abuse. | PartlyModern Payments, Scams & Fraud · Credit & BorrowingNot covered here: Two demands are missing, and the second is a deliberate boundary rather than an oversight. Predatory lending — title loans, payday loans and pawn loans — is named here and is not taught by any published objective. And the standard asks for the role of government in protecting consumers and the federal and state entities that do it; the Payments unit deliberately prints no liability cap, dispute deadline or statutory limit, so that it does not go out of date, and points at the CFPB and the account’s own disclosure instead. Naming the agencies is a short lesson to add, and Utah expects it. |
The Gaps
The 2 standards these units do not teach
No single course covers 15 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.
- 1.1 Describe the role different participants play in the economy, such as households, businesses, government. Define gross domestic product (GDP) and explain why it is important. Define inflation and explain its impact on economic and financial choices. Compare and contrast: expansion, recession, and depression. Discuss the role of the federal government in fiscal policy and the role of the federal reserve in monetary policy. Explain the law of supply and demand. Analyze how the larger economy develops from individual participants' rational economic choices. Explain how scarcity of financial resources affects rational economic choices. Define factors of production, resources, macroeconomics, and microeconomics. Apply economic reasoning skills to make informed personal financial decisions, including opportunity cost (tradeoffs) and their role in decision-making.This standard is macroeconomics: gross domestic product, inflation, the business cycle, fiscal and monetary policy, supply and demand, the factors of production. Its last demand — applying economic reasoning and opportunity cost to a personal decision — is throughout these units, but nine of its ten demands are a subject this course does not teach, and one demand out of ten is not coverage. Elsewhere on this site: Economics lessons & worksheets, Politics & Economy articles.
- 1.2 Understand the different ideologies behind economic systems, including: Capitalism, Laissez-Faire, Social Market, Neo-Capitalism, Socialism, Fascism, and Communism. Discuss historic and current examples of traditional, market, command, and mixed economic systems and their effects on economic growth. Discuss how free market systems and property rights correlate with economic prosperity.Capitalism, laissez-faire, socialism, command and mixed economies, and the relationship between free markets, property rights and prosperity. This is a comparative economics standard; no published objective addresses it. Elsewhere on this site: Economics lessons & worksheets, Politics & Economy articles.
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
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