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Assessment of the Undergraduate Economics Major: A National Survey

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 42; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00220485.2011.555722

2152-4068

Steven C. Myers, Michael A. Nelson, R.W. Stratton,

Accounting Education and Careers

Abstract Economics departments are faced with growing demands to document what their graduates have learned on completion of the undergraduate major. The results of a national survey of economics department chairs in the United States reveal that nearly two-thirds of the departments have a formal assessment plan. There is substantial agreement on the most important student-learning outcomes, which are consistent with the Hansen proficiencies. The most common approaches that departments employ to measure learning outcomes are course-embedded assessments and senior exit surveys. Capstone courses and senior projects as program assessment methods are most common in departments that are not in business schools and are without doctoral programs. Finally, more than half of the departments have adjusted their curriculum based on the results of their own assessment plans. Keywords: assessmentHansen proficienciesprogram assessmentundergraduate economicsJEL codes: A20A22A29 Acknowledgments The authors have benefited from the comments of Stephen Buckles, Mike Watts, Bill Goffe, Lee Hansen, and various anonymous reviewers. An earlier version was presented to the American Economic Association session on Research on Undergraduate Economics Courses and Majors sponsored by the Council for Economic Education, American Social Science Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans, January 4, 2008. They owe a debt of gratitude to Lee Hansen for his vision and advice and to their departmental colleagues, especially Dr. Elizabeth Erickson, our undergraduate advisor, for their insights and cooperation. Notes 1. The survey was pretested with a select group of department chairs and others with expertise in economic education. We give special thanks to Nan Maxwell, Steve Miller, Lee Hansen, and Mike Watts for the valuable feedback. 2. Most of the respondents are chairs, although less than a fifth of the respondents answered on behalf of the chair. We therefore interpret the results as the views of the chairs and use the term "chair" to refer to all who completed the survey. 3. In 2001 Hansen listed six proficiencies, but in 2004 Hansen offered a seventh. 4. We thank an anonymous referee for this observation.