ABSTRACT
The confident prosperity of the early 2000s has given way to economic uncertainty, including doubt about the economy’s future course and reservations about economists’ models to fully capture the changed environment. Is this a good time to be adding a challenging teaching and learning assignment, in the form of college-level economics instruction in high school? This chapter argues that the answer is “yes,” with Advanced Placement (AP) Economics holding substantial promise for teaching and learning. Perhaps you are an economics teacher and have been assigned to teach AP Economics next year. Or maybe your school is considering adding Advanced Placement to its economics course offerings. Or you may have been hired to teach economics and just found out that one of your courses will be at the AP level. In any of these scenarios, you realize that you’re being asked to teach at a higher level than before. You realize that the structure of the economy may have recently changed in fundamental ways. Furthermore, the school administration will see your students’ scores and compare them to national results. In fact, perhaps the entire world will see those scores. No one told you that you would be teaching in a fishbowl. This chapter will not only help you be more successful in teaching AP Economics but hopefully will also make teaching AP Economics your most rewarding teaching experience ever.
