Effective Economic Education in the Schools

The Developmental Economic Education Program (DEEP) was launched in 1964 by the Joint Council on Economic Education as an experimental program in three school districts. By 1989 there were 1,836 school districts enrolled in DEEP, covering some 39 percent of the precollege student population. This book tells the story of DEEP, an effort to improve the economics education curriculum by involving teachers, administrators, universities, and businesses in a curriculum change partnership. This current look at the DEEP experience is divided into five major parts. Part I consists of four chapters that give a rationale for economic education and explain in more detail the features of the DEEP model. Part II focuses on the research and evaluation that have been conducted over the 25-year history of DEEP and on related studies of economic understanding among students in secondary and elementary grades. The next two parts offer case studies of how DEEP works. Part III looks at DEEP operations and issues in four diverse states. Part IV shows how the DEEP process works in six different school districts. In part V the focus shifts from the present to the future; these chapters discuss the future of DEEP in the context of educational reform, requirements for new curriculum materials, needs of school districts, and leadership from the Joint Council on Economic Education. (DB)