Grant Summary
$290,000 over 36 months to Barnard College and the CORE-USA Consortium. The introductory curriculum in economics at many institutions is disconnected from the history of economic thought and contemporary challenges related to the recent financial crises, globalization, and economic development. Standard course textbooks are expensive and provide students with access to “toy data” that encourages a mechanistic approach to economic analysis. U.K. based consortium CORE Economics Education (Curriculum Open-Access Resources for Economics) produces free high-quality resources that depart from the conventional approach to teaching economics. Its e-book is required for introductory courses at University College London (UCL), the Toulouse School of Economics, Humboldt University, and other top economics departments in Europe. Assessment data from UCL indicates that students who had taken the CORE course in the first year outperform their counterparts who had taken the standard introductory course in the second year of study. Currently, more than 2,300 verified instructors use the CORE instructional resources and more than 30,000 students spread over 78 countries have registered for access to the e-book. This project aims to establish the CORE-USA Consortium to expand the use of its curricular resources in U.S. institutions and engage graduate students in the process of producing instructional materials as part of their broader preparation to teach economics effectively.