U.S. students performed about average in financial literacy among 10 countries, according to the results of the latest Program for International Student Assessment.
American 15-year-olds performed below students from Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, the Netherlands, and Russia on questions of basic personal finance, such as identifying an invoice or responding to a message from a bank.
High math scores in general weren’t directly connected to high scores on the financial-literacy exam. But students who reported talking to their parents about money matters also scored higher on the test.
Higher-income students scored higher on average than those from low-income families. There were big racial gaps, too: In the United States, just 1 percent of black students and 5 percent of Hispanic students earned top scores on the test, while 16 percent of white students and 20 percent of Asian students earned a top score.
