Economic Literacy Among Primary-Grade Students

Abstract

Curricular reforms that emphasize instruction of basic economic concepts have affected several generations of primary-grade students. To evaluate the degree to which primary-grade students have been gaining economic literacy, this study highlights the key achievements in efforts to add economics to the curriculum and to assess young students' understanding of basic economic concepts. The study also examines current strategies to teach economic concepts, and it reviews a large body of children's literature for economics-related content. We argue that even after most states began to mandate economics curricula for every grade level beginning with kindergarten, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the suitability of these mandated concepts in the primary grades of elementary school. Our review of children's literature makes clear that there is no shortage of opportunities to learn about economics through reading. We identified close to two hundred picture books and easy readers that have an economics-related theme as their principal focus.

JEL Classification: A21, J13, Z11