Demand for Economics Teachers Exceeds Supply : Education: A business group is helping to offset the imbalance by giving instructors a grounding in the subject.
Don’t know the difference between a demand curve and demonetization? Think regression analysis is some New Age therapy?
Maybe you napped through Econ 101. Or skipped it entirely and went out for the volleyball team instead.
Whatever the reason, most adults don’t know much about the dismal science of numbers and charts. So five years ago, California began requiring high schools to teach it.
Problem is, says the Industrial League of Orange County, there aren’t enough expert economics teachers to go around.
Each summer the trade association brings in about 30 local high school teachers for a week of workshops taught by business people and economists.
Until recently, economics education in local schools was either non-existent or not very good, says Todd Nicholson, president of the trade association. “It’s probably improving, but it’s a slow process,” he says.
The complaint isn’t new. Business people have been complaining for years that primary- and secondary-school economics education in the United States is inadequate. As far back as 1979, the National Assessment of Educational Progress found U.S. teen-agers “shockingly” unprepared to be consumers.
Teachers didn’t fare much better: One study found Oregon teachers didn’t know the difference between a corporate bond and a municipal bond. (A bond, of course, is essentially a promise to pay the holder a specified sum of money. They’re sold by corporations to raise money for business purposes like expansion; by state or local governments--a municipal bond--to pay for things like building roads.)
Schools began taking more interest in economics. Businesses started getting involved, educating teachers and handing out instructional material.
In fact, businesses got so involved that sometimes they may have gone a little too far: Some of them annoyed teachers by pressing on the schools instructional materials with a pro-business slant.
There isn’t a lot of business propaganda in the Industrial League workshop program, Nicholson says. On the other hand, he admits, teachers probably aren’t going to hear many arguments in favor of government regulation or environmentalists: The program “clearly has a business orientation,” he says.
The Industrial League is a group of 900 local businesses that lends its combined weight on issues important to business.
Education is one of the league’s big issues. So it was pleased in the mid-1980s when the Legislature decreed that all high school students would study a semester’s worth of economics, usually in their senior year.
The problem, Nicholson says, is that up until then most high schools didn’t even teach economics as a separate course. There weren’t enough qualified teachers to go around and the quality of some of the courses wasn’t too hot.
“Some schools pulled teachers depending solely on their availability,” he says.
Take Faith Hogan, for instance. When the economics teacher at Valley Christian High School in Cerritos moved on a few years ago, Hogan got the job “by default.” She had never taught the course before, although she did have a degree in business.
“When I started teaching this, I had a lot of fear,” she says. “That’s why I like these workshops. I’ve learned a lot about the practical side of economics.”
Most of the economics teachers in local schools are in the same boat, says Mel Heckman, another teacher participating in the Industrial League’s 5-year-old program.
“Since economics wasn’t a required course until a few years ago, a lot of the people teaching it don’t have a background in economics,” says Heckman, who teaches at Edison High School in Huntington Beach.
The dismal science is not an easy thing to teach, either, with or without a degree in economics. Says Hogan: “When the kids come in at first, most of them are scared. I approach it by telling them, ‘You’re already involved with economics. The economy affects you every day.’ ”
Meanwhile, the schools are making some moves too. Over at the Anaheim Union High School District, with eight high schools, they’ve been making a semester of economics mandatory since the early 1980s.
Next year the district, prodded by criticism of economics education, unveils a beefed-up economics program that will better prepare kids for economics in the adult world.
“I think there’s no question: Some of the criticism was legitimate,” says Dave Steinle, assistant superintendent for education services.
“I think this new course will answer a lot of those questions and complaints.”
Educating Educators
Sponsors: Industrial League of Orange County, Irvine, and the Center for Economic Education, Cal State Fullerton
Participants: 150 (about 30 a year over five years)
Length of program: Six days
Among topics studied:
* How to use economic indicators in investing
* How the recession is affecting employment and the financial industry
* How the national debt is related to the federal budget, interest rates and growth
* How government monetary policy affects investments
* How the environment fits into the economy
* How American business is competing with the Japanese
