A comparative study of economic literacy of high school students taking economics and marketing education in Tennessee public secondary schools

Educators, business leaders and economists have expressed concern about the lack of basic economic understanding of high school graduates in the United States. Tennessee is one of 15 states requiring at least one semester of economics for high school graduation. Marketing education teaches economic principles in an applied setting. The Tennessee Department of Education allows one full year of marketing education to satisfy the economics graduation requirement. This study was conducted to determine if students taking marketing learn economic principles at the same level as students taking economics. The study also compared the level of economic understanding of Tennessee students with nationally normed levels of economic understanding using The Test of Economic Literacy developed by the National Council on Economic Education.

The findings of the study led to the following conclusions:

1. Students taking traditional economics courses appeared to have a better understanding of economic concepts than students taking marketing education.
2. Students enrolled in traditional economics courses had higher grade point averages than students enrolled in marketing courses. Grade point average had a direct correlation to test scores. However, grade point average did not account for the entire discrepancy in test scores.
3. Although economics teachers held the statistically more positive attitude toward economics, both groups viewed economics with a positive attitude. The literature indicated that teachers with an indifferent attitudes negatively affected student learning while teachers with normal and enthusiastic attitudes produced similar learning outcomes. The lack of direct correlation between teacher attitude and test scores supported the literature.
4. Marketing and economics teachers appeared to have similar levels of exposure to college economics courses.
5. Local education agencies have greater control in determining when students take high school courses. This freedom had not changed the make up of either economics or marketing classrooms. These classrooms were still composed primarily of juniors and seniors.
6. The results indicated the ability of secondary students to know. understand, apply, analyze and evaluate economic concepts fell short of expectations. Tennessee should strengthen the economics curriculum for both economics and marketing because both groups scored lower than the national norm.