District Level Mandates and High School Students' Understanding of Economics (Economics EDUCATION ARTICLES‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Mississippi will soon be joining the growing number of states that require students to complete a formal course in economics prior to graduation from high school (Grimes and Millea, 2003). Under the Mississippi Department of Education's (MDE's) new minimum curriculum standards, the freshman class of 2008 must complete a one-semester course in economics to satisfy graduation requirements. Along with civics, history, and geography, economics is one of the four "strands" of Mississippi's social studies curriculum. The economics curriculum standards of the MDE are modeled on the National Council on Economic Education's (NCEE's) Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics (1997). School districts are held accountable for meeting these standards whether economics is offered as a stand-alone course or infused into other courses. Currently, the state's graduation policies require completion of either a course in economics or a course in geography. Historically, and for a variety of reasons, some of Mississippi's 153 school districts already have local graduation policies that require high school students to complete an economics course. With the upcoming change in the state's minimum standards, it is expected that more school districts will move to mandate the high school economics course prior to 2012 when all graduating students must have completed the course.