The Test of Financial Literacy: Development and measurement characteristics

The Test of Financial Literacy (TFL) was created to measure the financial knowledge of high school students. Its content is based on the standards and benchmarks stated in the National Standards for Financial Literacy (Council for Economic Education 2013). The test development process involved extensive item writing and review. Test data collected from 1,218 high schools to evaluate the measure indicate that the overall test is reliable and valid, and test items contribute to the effectiveness of the instrument. Further test analysis was conducted using an item response theory (IRT) model with four parameters to estimate item discrimination, item difficulty, guessing, and inattention. The IRT results indicate that the measure is effective in assessing student financial literacy across a broad range of student abilities.