All students in financial management last year passed the WISE Financial Literacy exam on the first attempt.

Jim Cartwright and Beth Hubbard, the financial management teachers, were recently awarded Gold Star Teacher Awards due to their students’ success.

“For us to receive the awards, we had to have a 90 percent or higher passing rate throughout all of our classes,” said Cartwright.

The school is one of 285 nationwide that received the honor and recognition.

Every student is required to take financial management to graduate; however, they only need to pass the Financial Literacy Test to earn a specialized seal on their diploma.

Students who took the class last year felt prepared for the test, and are glad they passed.

“We took a pretest at the beginning of the class, and it was pretty hard,” said senior Lauren Owens. “But, when I took it at the end of the year, I had experienced the class and knew enough to pass the second time around.”

Each student who passes the exam will receive a Career and Technical Education (CTE) seal on their diploma.

“The students were so excited that they’d have the seal on their diploma, as well as earn a student selected verified credit,” said Hubbard.

To prepare and do well in the course, these teachers recommend that the students have financial discussions at home about insurance, banking, budget, credit, and investments, the five topics covered in class.

The information students learn in the course will guide their financial decisions in the future.

“Everything they learned is real world skills that they’ll carry with them for the rest of their lives,” said Hubbard.

Though the teachers received the recognition by earning awards, the students received recognition from their teachers.

“We are so proud of them and are glad they worked so hard in our class,” said Cartwright.