The Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE), created in 1968(TUCE), created in and revised in 1981(TUCE), created in , 1991(TUCE), created in and 2007, is widely used to assess students' understanding of economics principles and for research into teaching methods. In this article, we examine the student scores used to "norm" the TUCE post-tests (taken at the end of the course) to assess their understanding of economic principles from 1968 to 2007. Our analysis yields two general conclusions. First, their understanding is extremely low-more than 70 percent of the students who normed the TUCE post-tests would have earned a D or F on these tests. Second, students' understanding has declined substantially-the proportion of students who would have earned a D or F has risen from 78 percent in 1968 to 93 percent in 2007.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.