How to make a Pacing Guide for NGPF -Curriculum

One of the most common questions we get about the NGPF curriculum is “Do you have a pacing guide for …?”. Because we serve a national audience of teachers with different state standards, school schedules and demography of students, it is not possible for NGPF to create a one -off Pacing Guide with one size. That said, we want to help you create your own pacing guide by sharing some of the most common suggestions that we hear from experienced NGPF teachers.

[post last updated July 22, 2025]

Here are some basic guidelines that help you make your own Pacing calendar:

Step 1: Understand your time frame

Start by breaking down the time frame of your course:

Example:

• You give a semester -long course: 90 days.
• Non-teachings: Account for school events, teacher training, test days and other non-instructional days.
• Instruction days: You can leave that with 71 effective education days.
• Class Duration: 45 minutes, five days a week
• NGPF lessons: Knowing that there are 68 lessons in the semester course – many of which can include several days – acknowledge the need to cut some content

Step 2: View the State standards

Many states have a list of required standards for personal financing. The NGPF curriculum is aligned with the National standards for personal financial education:

Example:

• Mark topics that your state needs
• Consider removing or shortening units or lessons that may not be covered under the standards of your state
• Take a look NGPF’s mini units For topics such as Philanthropy or Buy a house that you may want to include to meet standards that do not fall into the core curriculum

NGPF has also created Crosswalks for many specific states that show how our curriculum matches the state standards.

Step 3: Perform a first assessment

Consider finding out what your students already know:

Example:

• Management de Semester Course Diagnostic ExamTo find topics that students have learned elsewhere. This can help you make decisions about how much time you can spend on each unit. You can find it through the Semester Course page Then click on course material.

Step 4: Do together with collaboration

We know that everyone’s education situation is unique. You may give a block schedule and see your students only twice a week. Working together with other teachers who have a common situation is a great way to gain insight into how you can approach the planning for your circumstance:

• Participate Finlit Fanatics on Facebook And use the search function at the top right of the page. Looking for “Pacing” or “Block schedule” gives you access to many discussions of the years with useful information and insights from other teachers who use NGPF’s curriculum

Step 5: Layout your weekly framework

With all this research, start by drawing up a plan:

• Make one weekly calendar like this To postpone the entire semester in wide strokes.
• Make decisions within each unit. Do you have to treat all content in each lesson? Can individual lessons be cut?
• View the shorter Trimester course Version of the unit to see if that is sufficient to meet the standards of your state
• Dig in individual lesson and use the estimated time next to each source to decide whether a certain lesson will last one day or extends over several days. Pay special attention to the length of the DO IT activities that can vary in length from 10 minutes to more than 90 minutes.

• When it is time for assessment, use the questions per lesson plassen at the end of each unit test to adjust your test to the lessons and content you have treated

Step 6: Reflecting, evaluating and adjusting

As you progress through the semester, you make adjustments. If the school is closed because of a snow day or a unit is done much faster than you expected, adjust your agenda and make notes for future semesters.

Conclusion:

Making the perfect pacing guide is just as much an art as a science. Every classroom, each semester, brings each group of students its own set of variables. The steps described above offer a route map, but it is your expertise and intuition that it will really make it effective. Trust the feedback of your class, insights from colleague -educators and the requirements of your state standards to refine your approach. Good luck if you start a different semester!

About the author

Dave Martin

Dave joins NGPF with 15 years of educational experience in mathematics and computer science. After he participated in the New York City Teaching Fellows program and obtaining a master’s degree in education at Pace University, his career in education brought him to New York, New Jersey and a summer in the north of Ghana. Dave is firmly convinced that financial literacy is of vital importance for creating well -completed students who are prepared for a complex and very competitive world. During which free time will two young daughters allow, Dave enjoys video games, dungeons and dragons, cooking, gardening and naps.

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