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Abstract
As economic conditions worsen in the United States, it is becoming increasingly important to educate high school students about the economic system and financial literacy. In the State of Georgia, public high school students are required to successfully complete an economics course and take an End-of-Course Test in Economics in order to graduate from a Georgia public high school. This course may be taught by members of either Business Education or Marketing Education teachers in the Career and Technical Education Department or the Social Studies Department based on school choice. This study aimed to indentify if teacher background as defined by certification field (business education or economics) and teacher degree level as well as teacher gender have an impact on student achievement as measured by the Georgia Economics/Free Enterprise End-of-Course Test (EOCT) taken at the end of instruction. Of the 714 economics teachers who tested in spring of 2010, 41 teachers were randomly selected from the economics teacher population that tested in order to create a sample that was equal to the number of business education teachers who tested in spring of 2010. Descriptive statistics were performed to analyze the student achievement scores on the Economics EOCT based on teacher background as defined by teacher certification in business education or economics. One-way ANOVA was performed to analyze the student achievement scores based on teacher certification. Two-way ANOVA was performed to analyze the student achievement scores based on (1) teacher background and teacher gender and (2) teacher background and teacher certification level. Descriptive statistics did show differences for teacher gender, teacher background, and teacher certification level. Results produced a mean student achievement score of 82.80% for the sample of business education teachers and 78.59% for the sample of economics teachers. There was a statistically significant difference in student test scores based on teacher background but not for the interactions of teacher background and teacher gender or teacher background and teacher certification level.