Using Low-Stakes Assessments to Improve Teaching: A Case Study in Micro and Macroeconomics
| Category | Assessment |
| Instructors | George Orlov, Senior Lecturer of Economics Doug McKee, Senior Lecturer of Economics |
| Department | Economics |
| College | Arts & Sciences |
| Course Number and Name | ECON 1110 (Introductory Microeconomics) and ECON 1120 (Introductory Macroeconomics) |
| Discipline | Economics |
| Course Level | Introductory Undergraduate |
| Course Size | 150-570 students |
| Implemented | ECON 1110: Fall 2019 – present; ECON 1120: Fall 2021 – present |
Brief Summary
The instructors of these large economics courses adjust their teaching to fill in the gaps in students’ incoming preparation, as identified through an assessment conducted at the beginning of the semester. A second assessment at the end of the course allows instructors to evaluate the effectiveness of changes made in their teaching by comparing student performance year to year and topic by topic. Several economics instructors at Cornell and other universities have followed their lead and have adopted these assessment practices in their own courses.
Learning Outcomes
Math Skills
Informed Problem Solving
Critical Thinking
Context
At Cornell, Introductory Microeconomics and Introductory Macroeconomics serve two groups of students: (1) students taking them as a requirement for their major, and (2) students for whom these courses represent their only exposure to economics at the undergraduate level. Both courses dedicate 20% to 25% of class time to class activities and active learning.
Basic math skills are the bedrock for both learning economics and developing the skills and ability to think like an economist. In both of these very large classes (500+ students), there is considerable heterogeneity in incoming students’ math preparation. Determining where students’ skills are at the start of the semester allows the instructors to engage in strategies that bring everyone’s math skills closer to the desired level by the semester’s close.
Determining where students’ skills are at the start of the semester allows the instructors to engage in strategies that bring everyone’s math skills closer to the desired level by the semester’s close.
Implementation
From 2017 to 2022, Cornell’s Department of Economics, with a grant from the Active Learning Initiative and in collaboration with faculty and students from many institutions, developed the Cornell Suite of Economics Assessments. In the first week of the semester, students in George Orlov’s introductory economics courses are required to complete the Mathematics for Economics Skills Assessment – Foundations (MESA-Foundations), an assessment designed specifically to assess three large skill areas relevant for success in introductory economics courses: arithmetic, algebra, and graphs. Any late enrollees are given a chance to complete the assessment in the second week of classes. An automated assessment system then generates an overall student performance report.
In most semesters, students have shown weakness in graph interpretation. Orlov has used this information in two ways: (1) He ensures that the earliest material to use graphs in class has the procedures for plotting and reading linear graphs explained in step-by-step detail; (2) he adds questions to the homework that practice these skills and allow multiple attempts per question. His key goal is to help students develop necessary math skills so that their main focus throughout the course is learning economics, and not struggling with calculations and formulas.
Orlov uses the Principles of Economics Skills Assessment (PESA) for their introductory courses’ end-of-semester assessments. PESA-Micro (for ECON 1110) and PESA-Macro (for ECON 1120), are administered online in the last week of class, with students who complete it receiving an extra percentage point credit to their final grade. These end-of-semester assessments help the instructors evaluate how well their teaching approaches have worked and point them to further adjustments needed in future semesters.
Challenges
One challenge both instructors have faced is how to increase the completion rate for the end-of-semester assessment because, while it is high, it is still not 100%. For the assessment to maintain its validity, the instructors believe it should remain a no-stakes test with credit based on completion, and have found that making it a compulsory course component for the end of the semester results in a lower quality of data than the extra-credit version of the assessment.
Reflection and Future Directions
Over the past three semesters, most students have put serious effort into the start-of-semester assessment, giving the instructors an accurate picture of their math skills. This has allowed course instructors and teaching assistants to adjust their teaching to meet students where they are. The process of taking these assessments is also valuable for students, as it either bolsters their confidence in their skills or signals that they should review materials from prerequisite courses.
Alongside collaborators on the Cornell Suite of Economics Assessments, Orlov and McKee developed a web-based interactive dashboard to make the suite of assessments available to other Cornell economics instructors to employ in their courses. Additionally, the dashboard allows instructors to easily track the assessment data from semester to semester, with the ability to break the aggregate performance down by learning goals and demographics. This gives the instructors an overview of how their students’ learning changes as course pedagogy changes or new elements are added.
“The assessment allows me to recognize exactly where students are struggling with their math. I can then spend more time on the skills that need enhancing.” – Dr. George Orlov
How to Adapt This Approach
- Identify the foundational skills your students need.
- Determine the type of assessment that will best measure your students’ knowledge.
- Create your assessment questions or tasks, as applicable to students at the start and end of your course.
- Pilot your assessment, then review and reflect on the results.
- Modify your teaching based on assessment results.