Money Minded Illinois

Welcome

Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs is expanding access to high-quality personal finance education across Illinois. We help teachers and school districts implement the Illinois Financial Literacy and Social Studies standards by offering free resources—ready-to-use curriculum, classroom materials, and PD opportunities, including professional development days.

You can check out our elementary, middle, and high school resource portals. 

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Explore all that Money Minded Illinois has to offer!

Our goal is simple: to make it easy for Illinois teachers and school districts to implement the new Financial Literacy and Social Studies Inquiry Standards.

Guided by the C3 Framework, our curriculum includes everything educators need to teach each unit with confidence—while ensuring the standards are fully addressed. Below is an overview of how each unit is organized.

Unit Structure: Inquiry-Based Learning

Each lesson follows a clear inquiry cycle:

Ask → Investigate → Create/Discuss → Reflect

Ask

Every lesson begins with a compelling question, followed by three supporting questions that connect directly to it. The supporting questions increase in complexity as students move through the lesson, making it easy to differentiate instruction and adjust pacing.

Investigate

This section includes the featured resources students use to explore the questions. Depending on the lesson, resources may include informational readings, videos, or hands-on activities. Materials are designed to help students research, think critically, and build understanding.

Create/Discuss

Here you’ll find the formative performance tasks tied to each supporting question. All activities are included in the unit and are ready to use.

Reflect

This section includes the lesson’s summative performance task, giving students a final opportunity to demonstrate what they learned.