The disaggregation of value-added test scores to assess learning outcomes in economics courses

This study disaggregates posttest, pretest, and value-added or difference scores in economics into four types of economic learning: positive, retained, negative, and zero. The types are derived from patterns of student responses to individual items on a multiple-choice test. The micro and macro data from the Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE) are used to show how aggregate scores can be reinterpreted based on their learning components. The regression analysis shows the relative contribution from learning components to aggregate scores. A value-added or difference score has a potential problem because it is a mixture of positive and negative learning.  A better alternative would be to use the positive learning scores to assess improvement in economic understanding

The Effects o f Financial Education on Short-term and Long-term Financial Behaviors

This study investigates how financial education in high school, college, or in the workplace affects the short‐ and long‐term financial behaviors of adults using the 2015 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) data. Financial education appears to have generally insignificant effects on short‐term behaviors for which there is regular feedback and penalties, and thus greater opportunity for learning by doing. If consumers do not pay off their credit card bill, they get a monthly statement showing interest charges and penalties. Financial education appears to have more positive and stronger effects on long‐term behaviors with less timely feedback, and for which the adverse consequences are not fully realized until later in life, so learning by doing may not work. Not saving enough money for retirement cannot be easily or quickly corrected, if at all. The benefits to financial education may differ based on the time horizon for the financial behaviors

Study guide to company economics, 15 th ed.

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