The high school economics course comes of age

Abstract

Until recently economics was considered a difficult course recommended only for college-bound students and high schools offered at most a onesemester course. A 1981 study (Yankelovich, Skelly, & White, Inc.), however, showed signs that the perception of economics as an elite course was changing. It concluded, In total, students in 87 percent of the nation's junior and senior high schools have the opportunity to take economicseither because it is compulsory or as an elective (p. 35). But other conclusions of the report were less optimistic. Sixty-two percent of the high school teachers surveyed stated that economics was their secondary responsibility while only 35 percent said it was their primary responsibility (p. 41). Although 49 percent of the teachers felt economics enrollment was up compared to three years previously, they could not agree on what constituted an economics course.