Approach and design of the study:

The term literacy is based on a functional understanding of education that focusses on the continuous learning throughout people’s lives. The acquisition of relevant competences, consisting of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, should enable learners to be an active member of society and take responsibility in economic situations.

Measuring economic literacy, as well as the development of a valid test using authentic tasks require a thorough analysis of the economic domain. The levels of competence will be developed along three roles regarding expected economic activities: Consumers, employees and economic citizens. On that basis, the competence requirements are in accordance with the aim of the curriculum to successfully manage economic tasks in life.

The preparation of the test will identify the leading ideas and contents of the curriculum in North Rhine-Westphalia (cf. Entwurf Kernlehrplan Wirtschaft, 2020) and further provide a comparative analysis of the relevant curricula as well as including the current state of research in the field. In this part of the study, the aim is to develop a model that represents the domain adequately.

Based on the domain analysis, a representative survey will be conducted. The development of the test for the authentic assessment will consider that economic literacy requires linguistic-argumentative as well as mathematical-analytical competences to portray holistic economic competences that enable learners to act in complex economic situations.

Existing tests in the field such as the Test of Economic Knowledge/ Test of Economic Literacy (cf. Soper & Walstad, 1987; Walstad, Watts & Rebeck, 2007) its German adaptation (Wirtschaftskundlicher Bildungs-Test by Beck & Krumm, 1998), or the PISA Financial Literacy study by the OECD (cf. PISA 2012; PISA 2015; PISA 2018) will provide blueprints for the development of test items.

For gathering the data, a national survey will be conducted in addition to the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2022), which provides the time frame for ECON 2022. Regarding the content, the two tests will be independent. Socio-demographic data about the students or data about the characteristics of the schools will be collected and provided for ECON 2022 by the ICCS 2022 assessment. Therefore, the ECON 2022 survey can focus on economic contents. The sampling for the study is carried out jointly for ECON 2022 and ICCS 2022.

A computer-based assessment allows the development of innovative and interactive test items that reflect authentic economic real-life situations of students. This way, students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding economic participation can be detected. These are of increasing importance, considering the current national and international societal challenges.

The main survey will take place in the first half of 2022 after the successful testing of the pre-test around early 2021.  Students in grade 8 from 150 schools in North Rhine-Westphalia will be included in the main survey. A national report with the results of the survey is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2024; in addition, ECON 2022 will provide feedback for the participating schools.

Literature:

Beck, K., Krumm, V. (1998) Wirtschaftskundlicher Bildungstest (WBT) [German adoption of the Test of Economic Literacy from Soper and Walstad, 1987]. Hogrefe, Göttingen.

Ministerium für Schule und Bildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (2020). Kernlehrplan für die Sekundarstufe I Realschule in Nordrhein-Westfalen -Wirtschaft -Entwurf Verbändebeteiligung, 25.02.2020

OECD (2014), PISA 2012 Results: Students and Money: Financial Literacy Skills for the 21st Century (Volume VI), PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264208094-en

OECD (2017), PISA 2015 Results: Students’ Financial Literacy (Volume IV), PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264270282-en                                                                                                                                         

OECD (2020), PISA 2018 Results: Are Students Smart about Money? (Volume IV), PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/48ebd1ba-en.

Soper, J. Ch.&Walstad,W. B.(1987).Test of economic literacy, 2nd edn. Joint Council on Economics Education, New York.

Walstad, W. B., Watts, M.,& Rebeck, K. (2007). Test of understanding in college economics: Examiner'smanual(4thedn.).NewYork, NY:NationalCouncilonEconomic Education.