BISMARCK — State School Superintendent Levi Bachmeier has touted North Dakota’s improvement on a national literacy report card.

According to information released by the Department of Public Instruction on Tuesday, Dec. 2, the report card examined state laws, educational policies, and curricula that affect financial literacy instruction in each state’s K-12 schools. The report is published every two years by the Tennessee-based American Public Education Foundation.

North Dakota has improved by a letter grade since the 2023 edition of the report with a “B,” a jump credited to a legislative mandate that each high school student complete one-half unit of financial literacy or receive instruction in other classes about personal finance elements, including budgeting, investing, debt and risk management.

“Our state government has set a goal of having North Dakota rated as the nation’s most financially literate state by 2027,” Bachmeier said. “This improvement on a national report card represents important progress toward that goal.”

The report also approved new academic content standards on financial literacy approved by the DPI in July, and represented “huge progress” for financial literacy in the state’s schools, but that adding requirements for a stand-alone course in the subject would boost the state’s grade into “A” territory.

The APEF report card rated the financial literacy of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Seventeen states, including Minnesota, earned “A” grades. North Dakota was one of 22 that received “B”s. There were six “Cs,” four “Ds,” and three “Fs” from South Dakota, Alaska and the District of Columbia.