| This study examined the overall level of student performance on the economics portion of the 2005 Kansas Social Studies Assessment in grades 6, 8, and 11, analyzing student understanding of specific economic concepts assessed and investigating factors related to overall student performance. The entire population of students with no special education needs who took the assessment was included in the analysis.; The analysis showed relatively low overall performance on the economics section across all grades. The average scores ranged from 62 to 67 with only 50 to 60 percent of the students scoring higher than 60 percent correct answers, across the grade levels. The analyses further showed that there is a gap between the students of different gender, ethnicity and SES groups, with males consistently scoring higher than females, white students outperforming minority students, and students of high SES doing better than those of low SES.; Analysis of mean item difficulty revealed patterns of poor performance across all grade levels on international economic concepts, specifically international trade, trade agreements, imports and exports, economic specialization, economic systems and on the key concepts of opportunity cost and scarcity. Students demonstrated better performance on the items related to functioning of the market economic system.; Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between student individual characteristics (gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status) and performance on the test. All characteristics proved to be statistically significant, together explaining 10 to 15 percent of the variance. The effect size of each student factor was relatively small.; Multiple regression analysis was also used to explore the relationship between school district characteristics (size, student-teacher ratio, per-pupil finance, and district poverty level) and the mean district economics scores. This analysis showed that the poverty level in the district was the only significant variable related to economics performance.; The findings of the study provide information that can be used by educators and policy makers to develop recommendations on how to improve student performance in economics, empowering students with knowledge and skills necessary to function efficiently in the increasingly global society. |
