Selected Content Specifications for Statewide Assessment By Standard: Economics

Social Studies
Grades 4, 8, & 11
September 7, 1999

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Robert E. Bartman, Commissioner of Education

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Standard 4

Knowledge of economic concepts (including productivity and the market system) and principles (including the laws of supply and demand).

1. Knowledge of basic economic concepts, be-ing able to explain them and use them to in-terpret everyday events:
… scarcity
… opportunity cost
… trade using money and bartering
… consumer, consumption, producer, and production
… supply and demand
… natural, capital, and human resources
… private goods and public goods
… saving and investment

2. Knowledge of how to interpret past, explain present, and predict future consequences of economic decisions. (Decisions would be of a nature that is meaningful to fourth grad-ers, such as decisions made by consumers and decisions pertaining to the environ-ment.)

3. Knowledge of the existence and purposes of taxes, especially taxes students experience, such as sales taxes. (Students should know how tax moneys are used, who benefits from tax-supported services, and who pays for those services.)

4. Knowledge of how to make decisions using cost-benefit analysis.

5. Knowledge of how households, businesses, and governments are interdependent. (Students should be able to explain how de-cisions of households, businesses, and gov-ernments affect one another.)

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