The transition to market-based economic education: evaluating program effectiveness in Kazakhstan

This article presents an analysis of a program designed to enhance economic literacy through teacher training in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. The cognitive and affective outcomes for high school students who were taught by teachers trained through the National Council on Economic Education's (NCEE) International Economic Education Exchange Program (IEEEP) are examined and compared to those of students in courses taught by a sample of teachers who had not received training. like most publicly supported programs, beneficiaries were not randomly chosen and assigned to treatment and control groups. To overcome the inherent sample selection which allowed for the interdependency of economic understanding and attitudes. The results indicate that students taught by trained teachers achieved higher post course scores on standardized testing instruments, after controlling for differences in student attributes, teacher characteristics, and the non-random selection of teachers into the training program. However, both the cognitive and affective improvements would have been greater even if teachers had been randomly assigned to the program. The authors call for additional research to evaluate the criteria and methods used to recruit and select teachers for participation in training programs such as the IEEEP.