High School Economic Education in Texas: 1920 to Present (Chapter 14) (Report‪)‬

Economics was included in the Goals 2000 Educate America Act as a core subject in 1994. In response, the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) developed the Voluntary Economics Content Standards (1997) in order to provide guidelines for K-12 economic instruction in schools in the United States. Meanwhile many states formulated their own local standards for economic education like, for example, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for Economics with Emphasis on Free Enterprise System and Its Benefits (Texas Education Agency 1997). In addition, the No Child Left Behind act, signed into law in 2002, is the first national education bill in the United States that provides funds for economic, financial, and consumer education (NCEE 2002). Keeping in mind the growing interest in economic education among politicians, economists, and educators, I believe it is the right time to investigate where we have been, where we are now, and where we are going in terms of high school economic education. The purpose of this study is to summarize the public high school economic curriculum and instruction in the state of Texas since the 1920s. Three historical periods were of primary interest: (1) the 1920s and 1930s, (2) the postwar and cold war eras, and (3) 1980 until now. In the study of each period, four research questions were addressed: