Chicago’s Youth Connection Charter School Is Top High School Teaching Personal Finance Nationally

NEW YORK (PRWEB) April 16, 2018

Working in Support of Education (W!se), a New York City-based, national educational nonprofit, today announced that Chicago's Youth Connection Charter School earned first place in the 2018 "100 Best W!se High Schools Teaching Personal Finance" rankings. W!se announced the annual rankings at a ceremony sponsored by Voya Financial®. The Youth Connection Charter School achieved this honor after only two years of participating in the program. Virginia's Page County High School and New York's High School of Math, Science and Engineering at CCNY placed second and third, respectively.

W!se created the "100 Best W!se High Schools Teaching Personal Finance" list, now in its sixth year, to recognize schools of excellence in its national network of participants in its Financial Literacy Certification program. The 100 Best Schools rankings represent 18 out of the 46 states that participated in the program last year with enrollments ranging from 76 students in the smallest school, York River Academy in VA, to 3,841 at the largest, Forest Hills High School in Queens, NY. And, in an era when nearly two-thirds of Americans cannot pass a basic financial literacy test according to FINRA, 94 percent of students in the 2018 100 Best Schools rankings earned W!se's Financial Literacy Certification based on their coursework throughout the year and their performance on W!se's Certification Test.

"Preparing our young people for a life of financial wellness through personal finance education is of the utmost importance," said Phyllis Frankfort Perillo, Founder, President and CEO of W!se. "W!se is honored to showcase the top 100 schools and congratulate their incredible teachers, administrators and students for this outstanding achievement."

New York City Council Minority Whip Joe Borelli delivered the keynote address at the ceremony. Other notable speakers included Sam Stovall, Chief Equity Strategist at CFRA; Avi Daswani, Financial Specialist at Allstate Insurance Company; and students from Wausa Public School in Nebraska and the High School of Math, Science & Engineering at CCNY.

"Financial literacy is essential if students are to achieve financial independence and social mobility as adults," noted Borelli. "I applaud W!se for helping so many young Americans to harness this knowledge at such a young age."

The "100 Best" is the first and only national ranking in the field of personal finance education and is determined based on the average Certification Test score from each school with consideration given to the number of test takers and the socio-economic background of the students at each school.

W!se's award-wining Financial Literacy Certification program provides schools with the curriculum and resources to support their personal finance instruction and to measure students' financial literacy when they take the Financial Literacy Certification Test. Students passing the Test become Certified Financially Literate™ a nationally recognized credential.

For the complete list of this year's 100 Best schools, click here.

About Working In Support of Education (W!se)

Working in Support of Education (W!se) is a leading educational nonprofit based in New York City with a mission to improve the lives of young people and at-risk adults through programs that develop financial literacy and readiness for college and careers. At the heart of our offerings is a family of financial literacy initiatives, comprising the Financial Literacy Certification for high school students, the Certification in Personal Finance for educators and the MoneyW!SE program for survivors of domestic violence. These programs differ in scope and target audience, but all share a common thread – the administration of our standardized assessment of personal finance knowledge and a certification for those who master the subject matter. For more information, visit wise-ny.org. Follow W!se on Facebook and Twitter @wisenewyork.

About Voya Financial®

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), helps Americans plan, invest and protect their savings -- to get ready to retire better. Serving the financial needs of approximately 13 million individual and institutional customers in the United States, Voya is a Fortune 500 company that had $11 billion in revenue in 2015. The company had $452 billion in total assets under management and administration as of Dec. 31, 2015. With a clear mission to make a secure financial future possible -- one person, one family, one institution at a time -- Voya's vision is to be America's Retirement Company™. The company is equally committed to conducting business in a way that is socially, environmentally, economically and ethically responsible -- Voya has been recognized as one of the 2016 World's Most Ethical Companies® by the Ethisphere Institute, and as one of the Top Green Companies in the U.S., by Newsweek magazine. For more information, visit voya.com or view the company's 2014 annual report. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook and Twitter @Voya.

About Voya Foundation

Voya Foundation's mission is to improve the quality of life in communities where Voya Financial® operates and its employees and customers live. Voya Foundation provides grants and establishes signature partnerships in the areas of financial literacy and children's education and fosters employee engagement to deepen our positive impact on the community. For more information, visit http://www.voyafoundation.com.

Media Contacts:

Andrew Carter Finsbury646-805-2086
andrew.carter(at)finsbury(dot)com

Steven AppelWorking in Support of Education (W!se)
212-421-2700
Sappel(at)wise-ny(dot)org

Nicole Vasile Voya Financial
860-839-1589
Nicole.Vasile(at)voya(dot)com

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