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Can students learn economics in U.S. history?

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Economic educators are divided into two main camps regarding economics in grades K-12. One group advocates that economics should be infused into related subjects. The second advocates that economics should be taught as a stand-alone course. This study focused on teaching economics in U.S. history. It used a pre- and post-test design to measure changes in the economic knowledge of 503 high school students. The scores of the treatment group showed statistically significant gains while the control group showed no change. This suggests that the deliberate teaching of economics in non-economics classes can enhance students' understanding of economics.

I. Introduction

For decades, economic educators have debated the best approach for including economics in the K-12 school curriculum. Is it best to infuse economics into other related subjects, such as social studies or mathematics? Or is to best to teach economics as a stand-alone course at the high school level, most often at grades 11 or 12?

This paper sheds some new light on this debate. It reports how the lessons from Focus: Understanding Economics in U.S. History, a 2006 publication by the National Council on Economic Education, influence student knowledge of economics when used by teachers trained to use the program. This study used a pre- and post-test design to measure the changes in knowledge of 503 high school students: 353 in the treatment group and 150 in the control group. The testing instrument was based on multiple-choice items adapted from the curriculum.

After participating in the Focus: Understanding Economics in U.S. History curriculum, students' average scores on a test of economic knowledge embedded in a historical context improved by more than 17 percentage points. This change was statistically significant. The control group showed no change. Based on these results, Focus: Understanding Economics in U.S. History appears to be a useful tool for teaching basic economic concepts in U.S. history courses. This suggests that the deliberate use of economics materials in noneconomics classes can enhance students' understanding of economics.

II. Related Research

Evidence from testing with large, national samples using a highly reliable and valid test shows that high school students who have taken an economics class score significantly higher in economic understanding than students who have not. A classic study by Walstad and Soper (1988) used norming data of the Test of Economic Literacy (TEL) to assess the economic knowledge of U.S. high school students. This study included 3,031 students who took the TEL as a pre- and post-test. Half of the students were enrolled in economics courses; the others were enrolled in either a...