Assessing the Reliability and Validity of the Jump$tart Survey of Financial Literacy

Financial education represents an area of popular interest, owing largely to the Jump$tart surveys of financial literacy. However, while the surveys represent indicators of financial knowledge among high school seniors, these measures have not been statistically validated. This article describes an assessment of the surveys reliability (internal consistency), and validity. It reports a moderately high degree of consistency overall, however, discloses low to moderate internal consistencies among subscales. It also finds significant response differences to one quarter of comparable items between surveys. The researcher observes challenges to affirming the surveys validity and offers statistics suggesting social bias among survey items. He calls for further research into measures of financial literacy.The author appreciates the guidance and support of Dr. Duane Giannangelo, Dr. Jean Steiz, Dr. Lou Franceschini, and Dr. Steven Ross.