For districts
What your team needs to say yes.
A free course mapped to AB 2927, the evidence behind it, how student data is protected, and help with the rollout if you want it. Built to be forwarded to a cabinet or a curriculum committee.
How it works
Who does what.
Tyler Hensley
Creates and updates the work
The Launchpad, The College Project, the Arcade, and the classroom tools, revised each year for new laws, aid rules, and numbers. Licensing and class sets come from Tyler.
The Finance Lab
Runs it free and protects student data
A California 501(c)(3) that operates The Launchpad and the Arcade at no cost to schools and handles your district's data review.
Your teachers
Teach it
Students join with a class code and password. Teachers get a playbook for every module and a dashboard that shows the shift.
Licensing, class sets, and rollout support (readiness sessions, teacher bootcamps, year-one coaching) are Tyler's own work, optional and separate from The Finance Lab. See rollout support
Standards
AB 2927, topic by topic
All 13 required topics of Ed Code § 51284.5(a), the modules that teach each one, and a link to try each module without logging in.
Courses
A-G approval
UC approves courses, not curricula. Your district submits its personal finance course through UC's A-G portal, usually as a college-prep elective (area g), and The Launchpad can be the curriculum that course uses. CDE strongly recommends A-G approval for the AB 2927 course but doesn't require it. Planning the A-G submission is part of the Readiness Session.
CDE: personal finance requirementFor your review
Privacy pack and accessibility
Every kind of student data The Launchpad handles, who can see it, and how it is deleted, mapped to Ed Code 49073.1 (AB 1584), SOPIPA, and FERPA, with a data agreement your counsel can sign. How student data is handled is below.
Why The Launchpad lives at thefinancelab.co: Tyler creates and updates it. The Finance Lab, a California nonprofit, runs it and holds student data, so your district's data agreement is with a nonprofit that never sells student data.
Rostering. Students join with a class code, a first name, and a last initial: no email accounts, no downloads. Canvas schools can have students open The Launchpad from a Canvas course instead (LTI 1.3, piloting now; details below). Roster sync and grade passback are not built yet.
Download the privacy pack (PDF) (The Finance Lab, opens in a new tab)Privacy policy (The Finance Lab, opens in a new tab)Accessibility (The Finance Lab, opens in a new tab)
Evidence
What changed for students.
In The College Project's 2018 research cohort of 368 students, the share who believed they could afford a 4-year public university went from 46.7% to 83.3%, and a 4-year private university from 17.6% to 69%. The Launchpad measures knowledge and confidence directly in every module. Results published by The Finance Lab. See the evidence
Student data
Held in trust, never sold.
Student data belongs to students and their schools. The Finance Lab, the California nonprofit that runs The Launchpad, holds it as a steward.
Full privacy policy (The Finance Lab, opens in a new tab)Download the privacy pack (PDF) (The Finance Lab, opens in a new tab)
- Never soldNo ads, no ad trackers, and no selling or renting of data. Ever.
- Only what the course needsA first name, a last initial, a class code, and the work itself. No student emails or accounts.
- Yours on requestTeachers can download their class results anytime. A district can request its own data, or its deletion, whenever it asks.
- Only aggregates leave the classroomPublished results are anonymized and combined. No student can be identified.
Start small
A pilot is one teacher, one section, a few weeks.
01
Open the demo
See the teacher dashboard with a sample class. No signup.
02
Start one section
Create a class code and assign one unit to one class for a few weeks.
03
Review the shift
Look at the pre/post results together and decide what comes next.
Using Canvas? The Launchpad can open from your Canvas course so students skip the join code. Piloting now with districts: email us to be first.
See it with a sample class.
The teacher demo opens a full dashboard. No signup, no student data.