A Scalable Model for Offering Dual Enrollment Personal Finance to ALL Students

How Can High School Teachers Qualify?

California’s Personal Finance requirement means every high school student will need to take the course in order to graduate. For dual enrollment, that creates a practical challenge: a community college is unlikely to have enough faculty to teach Personal Finance sections at each of their partner high schools.

The solution is to structure your course so that qualified high school teachers can be approved to deliver the dual enrollment course at their own schools as part of the regular schedule.

How It Works
01

The College Establishes the Course

The community college approves the college-level Personal Finance course and determines the department in which it will reside. Housing the course in an appropriate discipline—such as Applied Behavioral Sciences, Consumer Sciences, or another related field—can create a pathway for qualified high school teachers to meet the college's minimum instructor qualifications.

02

Instructor Qualifications Are Set

There are two pieces to consider when a high school teacher delivers a dual enrollment Personal Finance course: college faculty qualifications and California high school teaching credentials.
 

COLLEGE FACULTY QUALIFICATIONS:
Each community college determines and approves faculty qualifications according to its own policies and applicable requirements. The emerging model places the college course within Applied Behavioral Sciences. Under this model, a high school teacher can qualify as a course instructor with a BA or BS degree + two years of applicable professional experience.
 

CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL CREDENTIAL:
To teach the Personal Finance course at the high school level, a teacher must hold a valid California Single Subject Teaching Credential in one of the following areas:

  • Social Science
  • Business
  • Mathematics
  • Home Economics

These credential areas encompass subjects such as economics, consumer education, business, consumer mathematics, and family economics.

03

High School Teachers Are Approved

High school teachers who meet the college’s minimum qualifications can be approved to serve as instructors for the dual enrollment course.

04

The Course Is Taught During the High School Day

Students take a Personal Finance course using Lifestyle Math from a high school teacher as part of their normal high school schedule while simultaneously earning college credit.

A Proven Model for Equitable Dual Enrollment

This model of embedding a dual enrollment course into the regular high school day and having it taught by high school instructors who meet minimum qualifications has been used since 2009 by community colleges teaching Career Choices and Changes for dual enrollment as part of the Get Focused Stay Focused program.

Why This Structure Matters

If every section must be taught by college faculty, the number of students taking the course is limited by faculty availability.

Using qualified high school instructors makes it possible to expand the course across multiple high schools and potentially serving ALL students who must complete a required Personal Finance course.

The Model
College-Approved
Course
+
Qualified High
School Teacher
+
Regular High
School Schedule
+
Early College
Credit
An Additional Advantage
A–G Approval

Lifestyle Math has already received A–G approval as a Personal Finance course through San Gabriel Valley ROP, providing a model that can support adoption by other California high schools.

Together, these two elements address important implementation issues on both sides of the partnership.

For the College

A structure that has the potential to scale easily with qualified high school instructors.

For the Partner High School

An A–G approved model for incorporating Lifestyle Math into the high school academic program.

Links to learn more about how your college can turn California’s Personal Finance graduation requirement into a dual enrollment opportunity—for ALL students.

Academic Innovations LLC

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