Curriculum lag challenges and strategies for LT principles: Lessons from closing the monetary policy curriculum gap

Abstract

The authors of this article address the challenges faced in implementing a literacy-targeted (LT) approach in economic education. Despite research demonstrating the benefits of the LT approach, there is resistance to its adoption in classrooms and the publication of supporting textbooks and materials. They identify four key input areas that serve as obstacles to moving the LT approach from academia to classroom adoption—standards and assessments, classroom materials, textbooks, and instructor knowledge—and suggest strategies for addressing each obstacle within three distinct economic education markets. Drawing from a case study on updating monetary policy instruction, the authors propose that a simultaneous, active, and systematic approach is essential to drive change and promote the adoption of the LT approach in economic education.

Keywords:

• Economic education
• Federal Reserve
• introductory economics
• literacy-targeted
• monetary policy

JEL CODES:

• A22
• E43
• E52
• E58

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Mary Suiter, Avi Cohen, and Wendy Stock for their helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 In “Who Does (and Does Not) Take Introductory Economics?,” Wendy Stock (2024) uses “one-and-done” to describe students who take a single economics course during college, usually an introductory course.

2 Data reflect resource usage from its addition to the relevant Web site until August 10, 2023.

3 Author’s calculation, Digest of Education Statistics, 2018: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_203.20.asp and CEE’s Survey of the States: https://www.councilforeconed.org/policy-advocacy/survey-of-the-states/.

4 We exclude the IB exam and standards from the current article because they fall outside of the United States and take a more international approach.

5 College Board. AP Credit Policy Search. https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/getting-credit-placement/search-policies/course/22.

6 Education Commission of the States. http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/mbstprofexcL?Rep=APP16&st=Florida.

7 An exception is Cohen and Wolla’s Canadian textbook.

8 Arkansas state standard requirement: “Compare and contrast various degrees of competition in markets (e.g., perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, monopoly)” Economics-Aligned-to-Personal-Finance (arkansas.gov) [https://dese.ade.arkansas.gov/Files/20210427080755_Economics-aligned-to-PF-Standards_PDF.pdf] (accessed November 30, 2023).

9 Texas state standard requirement for market structure: Economics. The student understands types of market structures. The student is expected to: (A) describe characteristics and give examples of pure competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly; and (B) identify regulations that apply to the establishment and operation of various types of market structures. Texas Administrative Code (state.tx.us) [https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=19&pt=2&ch=113&rl=31] (accessed November 30, 2023).

10 These organizations typically provide year-round professional development opportunities for teachers with offerings listed on their respective Web sites.

11 “You Asked for Shots, Tuna, Metal, and Money’” Planet Money. National Public Radio. March 24, 2021. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/980841456.

12 See the College Board’s stated policy about updating its standards and assessments for AP economics on page 2 of its AP Macroeconomics Course and Exam Description: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-macroeconomics-course-and-exam-description.pdf?course=ap-macroeconomics.

13 For a detailed discussion of the pre-2008 and current implementation regimes, see Ihrig, Meade, and Weinbach (2015a).

14 On June 1, 2022, as a result of the project described in this case study, College Board updated its AP Macroeconomics Course and Exam Description to include the new content.

15 Reference Tables 3 and 4 in Ihrig and Wolla (2020b).

16 https://www.stlouisfed.org/education/monetary-policy-lecture-guide.