How Well Do the Us Standards Work Together? An Analysis of the Economic Content of Four National Standards for Social Studies

The standards movement in the United States — a movement, which is roughly analogous to the National Curriculum movement in the United Kingdom, has now produced national standards for several subject areas. Social studies educators in the United States now possess a set of five national standards. But will these standards make reforming the curriculum more or less difficult? We used the economics content standards published by the National Council on Economic Education as the basis examining the economic content in the social studies, history, civics, and geography standards. Our analysis suggests that important economics content is absent in places where it should be prominent; it is presupposed in places where it should be explicitly identified, and it is sometimes represented inaccurately. If our analysis is correct, then efforts to use the national standards as the basis of curriculum improvement — especially as efforts relate to improving economic understanding — face an uphill task.