Robert Highsmith

An Agenda for Research on Economic Education in Colleges and Universities.

Future research on economic education at the postsecondary level should be directed toward the measurement of multiple outputs, the economics major, and replication.

A Study to Measure the Impact of In-Service Institutes on the Students of Teachers who Have Participated

In most workshops and in-service programs for teachers, pretests and posttests are administered to the participants in an effort to determine the effectiveness of the programs in increasing economic understanding. Few, however, have attempted to determine the resulting impact (if any) on the pupils of those participants. Highsmiths study is a pioneering effort in this regard. His report not only contains his findings relating to the impact of the workshop training on the pupils of participants, but also considers such variables as sex, IQ score, grade point average, socioeconomic status, type of program in which the student is enrolled, and news magazines read.

A Research and Evaluation Agenda for DEEP and Precollege Economic Education.

In 1983, the Joint Council on Economic Education (JCEE) initiated a major expansion and enhancement of its Developmental Economic Education Program (DEEP). The objective of the expansion effort is to enroll school districts covering 70 percent of the nations elementary and secondary students by 1990. In 1985, the JCEE also empaneled a committee to review the research and evaluation reports on DEEP, to make recommendations concerning what future studies would be most valuable, and to consider what kinds of research tools and programs might be required to promote DEEP. In this paper, we present the major conclusions of the committee, which broadened its agenda at the first meeting to encompass the more general topic of precollege economic education. The plain fact is that no

The Advanced Placement Program

This article explains the new advanced placement tests in economics, to be introduced in May 1989, and discusses their anticipated impact. The author was instrumental in their development.

International Economics in U.S. High Schools: Results from a National Survey

A national survey of high school teachers revealed interest in, and support for, instruction on international concepts, issues, and institutions, with teachers of economics supporting free-trade policies more than other social studies teachers.

Rethinking the Scope of Economics

the foundations of the discipline. More and more of the recent criticisms are coming, however, from individuals well known and widely respected within the mainstream of the discipline (e.g., from individuals such as Albert Hirschman, Daniel Suits, Lester Thurow, Melvin Ulmer, and many others). These critics are challenging more successfully than their predecessors at least some of the principal legs on which the foundation of economics science rests. The Joint Council on Economic Education (JCEE), an organization dedicated to imparting economic knowledge favored by most economists, has watched the debate with increasing interest. This is so because all teaching materials produced by the JCEE, all training it provides to teachers, and all curricular activities it conducts with schools reflect the consensus of main

Professional Developments and Opportunities

A wide range of opportunities for professional development are available to economics educators. The list includes articles from other sources that are of direct interest, research grants, workshops, and programs developed by the Joint Council on Economic Education.

Special Section: A Debate on Research Techniques in Economic Education

This Special Section represents a “first” for the JEE. In previous issues the “Communications” section has often included comments and criticisms of previously published articles, and authors of the original pieces have sometimes replied to these criticisms. Initially, the intention was to treat Beckers comment on Sopers article “Programmed Instruction in Large-Lecture Courses” (JEE, Spring 1973) in the conventional way. It was finally decided, however, that the exchange between Becker and Soper, and Highsmiths reaction to both papers, was important enough to merit special treatment. The research techniques discussed in the three papers should be of great interest to all who are involved in economic education research and, indeed, to all who read the reports of such research.