Research & evidence

Designed to measure. Not yet measured.

This page says what we measure, how, and when results will appear. It contains no outcome figures because none exist yet. When the first cohorts complete, the numbers go here, whatever they are.

Go to fliqscore.org →The full research program →

A reflection screen from The $100 Week: a student reads back what happened after a decision

What is measured

Financial judgment, read from decisions rather than recalled from a quiz.

Most financial-literacy evidence is a knowledge test before and after. Knowing about money does not reliably change what people do with it. The FLIQ Score™ is read, through the FLIQ Score Model (FSM), from the choices a student makes inside the experiences: a trade-off in The $100 Week™, a saving decision in a lesson, a setback and what happens next.

The end of The $100 Week: each decision trait read back to the student as Strong, Developing or Emerging

decision traits

Impulse Control · Planning Orientation · Risk Awareness · Recovery Behavior. A trait a student never had the chance to show is marked no evidence, not scored.

money domains

Earning · Spending · Saving · Giving · Borrowing · Investing · Planning · Protecting.

bands, one score

117–936. Explorer · Builder · Thinker · Innovator · Pioneer. Reported as a band and a number to adults; shown to a child as progress and moments, never as a rank.

Not publishedThe scoring method and its parameters. They are proprietary to WealthWise Kids and shared with research partners under a confidentiality agreement, not on a web page.

How the first cohorts are run

Two readings, five weeks apart, the same instrument.

First reading

The $100 Week™, five days in a browser, before any lesson. Every student gets a baseline from the same decisions.

The program

Five weekly sessions of Financial Foundations™, one grade band, delivered by the school's own teacher or facilitator.

Second reading

The same instrument, week five. The number that matters is the distance between the two readings.

The report

Class median and band, trait and domain movement, participation, facilitator observations. Aggregate only. Individual profiles stay with the facilitator.

See the shape of the output: executive brief (PDF, 3 pages) · sample institutional impact report (PDF, 14 pages) · technical appendix (PDF, 10 pages) · validation brief · sample sponsor report · sample case study. The samples use illustrative data and say so at the top.

Fig. 1 · The reporting scale, 117–936, five bands. Readings are reported as a band and a number. The pair of markers is illustrative, not a result.

§ Notation · FLIQ Score™ reporting

Reporting notation v1.0 · 2026

Traits

ICImpulse Control · Pausing before acting under pressure

POPlanning Orientation · Setting a goal and working toward it

RARisk Awareness · Weighing consequences before committing

RBRecovery Behavior · Regrouping after a setback

Domains

EAEarning

SPSpending

SVSaving

GVGiving

BRBorrowing

INInvesting

PLPlanning

PRProtecting

Readings

t₁First reading · Baseline, taken before any lesson

t₂Second reading · Taken after the program, same instrument

ΔChange · t₂ − t₁, reported per trait and per domain

nCohort size · Students with both readings

σSpread · How widely a cohort's readings vary

Scale 117–936 in five bands. Reported to adults as a band and a number; to a child as progress and moments, never as a rank. The scoring method is not published.

Fig. 2 · Notation used across every report, brief and appendix WealthWise Kids publishes. Codes are fixed; a reader who has seen a code once can read every later table.

The evidence ladder

Nine rungs, climbed in order. Where we are on each.

We do not skip rungs for marketing convenience. A rung is marked done only when the thing exists and can be shown.

1
Participation
Students, classrooms, sites, facilitators.
Started · unmeasured
2
Implementation
Completion, fidelity, adoption.
Instrumented · 2026–27
3
Experience
Student engagement, facilitator observations.
Instrumented · 2026–27
4
FLIQ movement
Pre/post behavioral signal, by trait and domain.
First cohorts · 2026–27
5
Case studies
Institution, cohort, implementation, outcome, what we changed.
Template built · none published
6
Partner validation
Renewals, expansion, repeat use.
Not yet
7
Independent evaluation
External evaluators.
Seeking a research partner
8
Formal validation
Psychometric work appropriate to what FLIQ claims.
Not yet
9
Published research
Conferences, white papers, peer review where earned.
Not yet

See the validation plan in full on fliqscore.org →

Validity status

Against the five sources of validity evidence (AERA/APA/NCME Standards)

ContentSpecified

Response processInstrumented

Internal structureNot yet estimated at scale

Relations to other variablesNot yet studied

Consequences of useLimits stated; effects in practice not yet studied

Full statement and limits on use: fliqscore.org/validation.

The studies that move the rung

Three studies, in order, each open to a university partner

Reliability

Internal structure and two-week test–retest of the composite and eight dimensions, n ≥ 300, McDonald's omega ≥ .70 as the pre-registered gate.

Convergent validity

The FLIQ Score™ against an established knowledge measure and a task-based measure of time preference, to show it is not a proxy for either.

Controlled cohort

A matched-comparison or waitlist design with the reporting format already published, so change can be attributed.

First measured cohorts: 2026–27 school year. The first report is published the week it exists. The evidence base behind all of this, 81 sources annotated, is the financial literacy research library. Own a study: fliqscore.org/research.

A researcher working through data at a desk with several screens

For researchers

We are looking for an independent evaluator for the first cohorts and a university partner for the validation work. De-identified cohort data, the instrument’s derivation under agreement, co-authorship where earned.

Research partnerships →

What the program is built on

The framework, the six research topics behind it, and the standards it maps to are in the evidence-base document and the standards hub.

Research & Evidence Base (download) →Standards →

The newsletter

How children learn money. Once a month.

For the adults who teach it, fund it, and live with it. One email, one idea, one thing to try. Reply to unsubscribe; we do it by hand.

Designed to measure. Not yet measured.

Financial judgment, read from decisions rather than recalled from a quiz.

Two readings, five weeks apart, the same instrument.

Nine rungs, climbed in order. Where we are on each.

Run the first reading yourself.