The Village School has again been named a W!SE Blue Star School having excelled on the W!SE Financial Literacy Certification Test, marking the ninth time the school earned this award, which will be presented in November.
The award is for the 2016–17 academic year.
W!SE gives its award criteria as: “A school, testing more than 10 students, must have achieved an 80 percent passing rate on our Financial Literacy Certification Test and have a majority of students on a given grade level take the test.”
Jeffrey Bernstein, Village School social studies/economics teacher, said, “We had 13 out of our 15 economics students take the test achieving a school average of 81. Two students were unable to take the test due to a scheduling conflict.”
David Anderson, W!SE executive vice president, said of the Village School: “We are proud of your students’ accomplishment and of your teachers who helped them become Certified Financially Literate. You have given your students vital knowledge about their personal finances and provided them with the tools they need to become financially capable young adults.”
The Certification Test, designed by W!SE (Working in Support of Education) on behalf of the New York Financial Literacy Coalition, reflects the New York State Education Department’s economic curriculum on finance. It evaluates students’ knowledge of banking, savings, investing, credit, insurance, and money management, and also gauges their ability to manage their own finances.
The New York Financial Literacy Coalition works with non-profit organizations, financial service firms, teachers, school administrators, and parents.
The W!SE program, developed in 2003 in Queens and the Bronx, has expanded nationally and has been widely recognized for its success, including receiving the US Treasury Department’s John Sherman Award for Excellence in Financial Education.
