Increasing the Public's Understanding of Economics: What Can We Expect from the Schools?
探讨中小学（K-12）在提升公众经济理解方面的作用，认为除非经济学界大力支持教师培训和教材开发，否则学校难以有显著成效。
In answer to the question, What can we expect of schools (K-12) in raising the level of economic understanding?, my first reaction is, Not much. We can't expect much from the schools unless the economics profession is prepared to offer strong and continuing support that will advance the training of teachers and improve the quality of the materials available to help them teach economics. Therefore, my appeal in this paper is for increased assistance from the economics profession. The Joint Council of Economic Education (JCEE) has been in the forefront of the endeavor to teach economics at the primary and secondary school levels for some 37 years now. Lately, we have stepped up our efforts considerably, with encouraging results. Still, we have a long way to go, and we cannot broaden our reach as far as we should without more help from you and your colleagues. Historically, too few teachers have had any training in economics whatsoever. According to the Southern Regional Education Board (1985), only 25 percent of graduating teachers' transcripts show even a single course in economics. The only other liberal arts subject in which they had fewer courses is philosophy. Once in the classroom, teachers receive precious little in-service training to update their skills, according to William Walstead and Michael Watts (1985). Surveys of elementary teachers report that about half had no coursework, and another 25 percent had taken only one course. Surveys of secondary social studies teachers who specialize in teaching courses or units in economics show about 15 percent with no coursework and another 25 percent with one course; 30 percent reported taking only two courses in economics. In other words, 70 percent of teachers who teach economics have had two courses or less in the subject. Further indication of the weak knowledge base of teachers in economics is demonstrated by the relative ranking they give to key concepts in the discipline. The National Survey of Economic Education, 1981, asked junior and senior high school teachers to rank economic concepts by their importance. The results show that 24 percent ranked the key concepts of tradeoffs (24 percent) and opportunity costs (34 percent) as relatively unimportant.